Santander: Intelligence weekly business news update

"It may not have made the news headlines, but we’ve just been through a rather unusual economic period in terms of top-level information on the UK economy. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) that produces and publishes most of the official economic statistics had announced that it was delaying publication of the full figures for GDP for the first quarter of this year. This was a very unusual step – normally the ONS publishes figures like clockwork to meet its timetable. So economic commentators were awaiting publication to see if large revisions to previously published figures were going to be announced. In the event it was all rather an anti-climax. Growth in the first quarter was confirmed at 0.3% and the revisions that were announced made the recession a little deeper (output fell by 6.4% rather than the previously estimated 6.2%) rather than affecting the pace of recovery..."

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