"Year-on-year growth for manufacturing and total industrial output is satisfactory, but the more recent figures show clear signs of a slowdown"
- David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce
According to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, the U.K. economy slowed somewhat in the third quarter, expanding at a 0.7% rate down from 0.9% in the previous three months, but still slightly above the U.K.'s long-term average. Last month the think-tank estimated Britain's economy grew by 0.8% in the previous three-month period from June through August. Britain's economy was about 3.5% above its pre-recession peak in January 2008, before the country's worst post-war recession took hold. Official data last week, which used new methodology to calculate the size of Britain's economy, showed it was 2.7% bigger than its pre-crisis peak by the end of the second quarter.
A separate report showed U.K. manufacturing output increased 0.1% in August, compared with the July's 0.3% figure, as carmakers' seasonal maintenance took longer than usual. Compared with the previous year, production of manufacturing firms rose 3.9%. Britain's manufacturing has yet to fully recover from the financial crisis, with the sector 4.4% below its 2008 peak. The wider measure of industrial production, which includes energy production, remained steady in August from the prior month, the ONS said. Industrial output surged 2.5% on an annual basis in August. Energy production is generally weak in August, when oil and gas output is disrupted by seasonal maintenance work in the North Sea.
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