The British economy grew at its weakest annual pace in 12 years in the second quarter of 2005 but consumer spending growth was revised up, official figures showed today.
The Office for National Statistics said that GDP rose by 0.5 per cent in the three months to June. This was unrevised from the estimate published last month and as expected by analysts.
The annual growth rate, however, was unexpectedly revised down to 1.5 per cent from 1.8 per cent because of downgrades to back data for public administration, defence, transport and storage and motor trades.
That was the weakest annual expansion since the first quarter of 1993.
But Bank of England policymakers may take some heart from news that household spending growth has been revised up as they had suspected it might be. Spending rose by 0.4 per cent, the ONS said instead of 0.2 per cent reported last month.
Part of this was because of higher estimates for overseas spending as had been predicted by the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee and also a higher estimate for housing repair and maintenance work.
Separately, the ONS released data on the balance of payments. The current account recorded a deficit of 3.050 billion pounds in the second quarter, lower than expected and the smallest since the first quarter of 2003.
That was equivalent to 1 per cent of GDP.