The British economy grew slower than estimated last year, due to weaker than expected government spending. UK GDP rose by 1.6pc in 2002, National Statistics (NS) said this morning, down from the 1.7pc estimate published by the office last month and the slowest growth in a decade. "Within the expenditure measure in 2002. general government expenditure has been revised downwards reflecting revised seasonal adjustment," NS said. "Household expenditure has been revised upwards at constant market prices."
The figures for the fourth quarter, which showed a sharp slowdown to 0.4pc sequential growth from 0.9pc in the previous three months, were unchanged from the preliminary estimate. However, the year-on-year growth slowed to 2.1pc from 2.2pc. NS also said that output of the production industries is estimated to have fallen 0.7pc in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter for a 1.2pc year-on-year decline. Manufacturing output fell 0.9pc quarter-on-quarter and 1.4pc year- on-year. The decrease in manufacturing represented an unprecedented seventh decline in the last eight quarters. ///www.fxcentre.com/