UK economy registers zero growth in Q3, GBP at 1-week low

UK’s economy has stalled during the third quarter of 2023, preliminary data showed on Friday.

The nation’s Gross Domestic Product recorded zero growth quarter-on-quarter, which has been the weakest performance since Q3 of 2022. Still, the data came in above market consensus of a 0.1% contraction.

On the production side, UK’s services sector shrank 0.1% (most notably real estate, transportation and storage), which offset a 0.1% growth in construction.

In expenditure terms, a surge in the volume of net trade was offset by declines in business investment (-4.2%), household spending (-0.4%) and government consumption (-0.5%), the Office for National Statistics said.

In annual terms, the UK economy grew 0.6% in the third quarter, again exceeding market consensus of 0.5% growth.

Industrial production in the country registered no growth in September compared to August, after a revised down 0.5% contraction in the prior month.

Manufacturing production, however, returned to growth in September, up 0.1% month-over-month, after a revised down 0.7% drop in August. Yet, the September figure fell short of market expectations of a 0.3% growth.

The Sterling was last inching up 0.09% on the day against the US Dollar, with the GBP/USD currency pair trading at 1.2234. Earlier in the session, the major Forex pair went down as low as 1.2211. The latter has been the pair’s weakest level since November 3rd (1.2184).