UK Q4 final GDP +1.3% vs +1.0% q/q prelim

Latest data released by ONS – 31 March 2021

  • GDP -7.3% vs -7.8% y/y prelim
  • Private consumption -1.7% vs -0.2% q/q prelim
  • Government spending +6.7% vs +6.4% q/q prelim
  • Exports +6.1% vs +0.1% q/q prelim
  • Imports +11.0% vs +8.9% q/q prelim
  • Total business investment +5.9% vs +1.3% q/q prelim
Slight delay in the release by the source. The preliminary report can be found here.
There are quite a number of notable revisions to the report, with consumption seen much weaker than initially estimated while business investment has been revised to being much higher than seen in the preliminary data.
In any case, the slight bump higher reaffirms the resilience in the UK economy despite the November lockdown at the time. Q1 economic conditions are likely to take a hit amid tighter restrictions but the outlook for 2H 2021 looks bright amid the quick vaccine rollout.