The growth of the UK economy accelerated

In the last quarter of 2016 the UK economy expanded at a good pace compared to the previous three months due to solid growth in British exports, but shrinking business investment, showed a final evaluation of official statistics ONS, analysts say.
Gross domestic product in the UK expanded during the period from October to December by 0.7% compared to the third quarter, when increased by 0.5%, confirming previous data on British statistics.
The acceleration of growth was mainly due to British exports, which grew on a quarterly basis by 4.6% against a previous forecast for an increase of 4.1%, after in the third quarter exports declined by 2.1%. Imports did drop by 1.0% after rising by 1.4% in the previous quarter and preliminary data showing reduction of imports late last year by 0.4%.
Meanwhile, business investment in the UK reduced by 0.9% after 0.4% growth in the third quarter, indicating that concerns about already launched Brexit may restrict investment in the future.
On an annual basis, however, the UK's GDP grew in the last quarter of 2016 to 1.9% compared to previous assessment for increase by 2%.
For the full year the British economy expanded by 1.8%, following growth of 2.2% in 2015, confirming preliminary assessment of the ONS.
In a separate study British statistics reported a slight reduction in the service sector in January by 0.1% compared to December 2016, when it was reported expansion of 0.2%. For the three months to the end of January, the services sector grew by 0.6% with expectations for expansion by 0.7% after an increase by 0.8% in the last quarter of last year.