The UK's Solid GDP Growth Just Got Confirmed
UK GDP rose by 0.7% in Q3, compared to Q2, as analysts had expected: that's a decent pace of growth, meaning a 3% expansion from the same period last year.
Business investment rose 7.1%, up a little less than expected. In Q3, investment only rose 1% from the second quarter. The part of the index that just covers private businesses dropped 0.7%, the first decline in five quarters.
Economists had expected total business investment to jump by about 9.5% from the same time last year.
That's a bit of a setback for politicians who are eager to show they're "rebalancing" the economy away from consumption spending. But in general it's considerably better than the picture in Europe at the moment, with growth at just 0.2%. Germany, the continent's biggest economy, only expanded by 0.1% in the same period.
The UK's growth pace isn't quite as rapid as the US, but in general the two countries are performing much more similarly that Britain is with its stagnant neighbours.