Growth has picked up in Britain – The Economist

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 0.7% in the April-June period, in line with forecasts of economists, after expanding 0.4% in the first quarter, the Office for National Statistics (ONS, for its acronym in English) in a preliminary estimate.

The British economic growth back on track in the second quarter of 2015, after a rebound in the dominant services sector and one of the largest increases in oil and gas production in a generation.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 0.7% in the April-June period, in line with forecasts economists, after expanding 0.4% in the first quarter, the Office for National Statistics (ONS, for its acronym in English) in a preliminary estimate.

The production in the second quarter was 2.6% higher than the previous year, also in line with projections.

“After a decline in the first quarter of 2015, the overall GDP growth returned to normal in the previous two years” said Joe Grice, chief economist at the ONS.

Britain recorded its highest growth in eight years, and earlier this month, Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, said the decision on when to raise interest rates will become a focus of attention at the end of the year.

Economists believe that only a minority of those responsible for the institution will vote to raise rates at the meeting of the entity next week, amid signs of a strengthening in the growth of wages and an economy operating at near full capacity.

The preliminary GDP reading is, above all, a statistical estimate when lack gather over half of the data, so the figures are often revised later.

Official data published on April and May previously showed weakness in construction and manufacturing, where exporters battling a pound strongly and figures on Tuesday showed that the services sector is leading the growth.

The services responsible for over three quarters of the economy, rose 0.7% in the quarter, after rising 0.4% in the first three months of 2015.

The ONS figures showed a decline in manufacturing output by 0.3%, its first quarterly decline in two years, although the increase in oil and gas production in the North Sea raised the general industrial data to 1%, the largest increase since the end of 2010.

The division of “mining and quarrying” in industrial production, which includes oil and gas , grew 7.8% in the quarter, the biggest advance since 1989.