Final reading of UK Q1 2015 GDP 30 June 2015

  • Prior 0.3%
  • 2.9% vs 2.5% exp y/y. Prior 2.4%
  • Business investment 2.0% vs 1.7% prior q/q
  • 5.7% vs 3.7% prior y/y
  • Household disposable income 0.2% vs 1.5% prior q/q
  • 4.5% y/y. Fastest growth since Q2 2001
  • Current account -26.548bn vs 23.750bn exp. Prior -25.300bn

Although the headline matches expectations the year on year jump makes better reading. Business investment picking up is a strong signal and the year on year rise in disposable income is great news too, despite the q/q drop from Q4

There's not enough here to set the world on fire but enough for a foundation to build on through the rest of 2015

The drag on the UK is the deficit numbers. The ONS revised the deficit numbers and they show 2014 coming in at 5.9% of GDP, the highest since records began in 1948. The Q1 numbers show the deficit at 5.8%

Just reading through the notes and the ONS says that most of the higher q/q revision is down to new methodology for calculating the construction output

All said and done there's been no real move in the pound bar a small 30 pip pop taking us over 1.5740 briefly

UK GDP final

UK GDP y/y