Trade poses biggest drag on UK growth on record
Foreign trade put the biggest drag on record on British economic growth last quarter, as a weakening global economy and surging demand for imports slowed Britain's recovery from the financial crisis, data showed on Friday.
The economy grew 0.5 percent in the third quarter, the Office for National Statistics said, confirming a preliminary reading and slowing from 0.7 percent growth between April and June.
The slowdown reflects a global weakening led by emerging markets such as China, while exporters have struggled with the rise in sterling this year.
But the data was in line with a forecast in a Reuters poll, and sterling edged up against the euro and dollar on the day, reducing some of its earlier losses.
Consumer spending remained strong. But trade lopped 1.5 percentage points off the economic expansion from July to September. That marked the biggest quarterly drag on gross domestic product growth since records began in 1997 and a sharp turnaround from the second quarter when trade boosted GDP.
Imports surged by the most in nearly 10 years, up 5.5 percent from the second quarter and overshadowing a much weaker rise in exports.
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