UK GDP Growth For Third Quarter Of 2015 Revised Downwards, Again

U.K. GDP's quarter-on-quarter growth by volume for the third quarter of 2015 was revised downwards to 0.4 percent, 0.1 percent lower than the previous estimate announced last month, according to the latest data published by the country’s Office for National Statistics (ONS).

When compared with the same period last year, GDP for the third quarter of this year grew by 2.1 percent, a figure revised downwards by 0.2 percent. The latest estimates incorporate new data for the recent quarters that have become available since Nov. 27, when ONS last published GDP estimates.

GDP in current prices increased by 0.7 percent between the second and third quarters of 2015, and GDP per head in volume terms was estimated to have increased by 0.3 percent during the same period.

The saving ratio for households and non-profit institutions serving households was estimated to be 4.4 percent during the last quarter, compared with 4.9 percent in the second quarter of this year. In 2014, the saving ratio was estimated to average 5.4 percent.

"These changes significantly alter the quarterly growth story for 2015," Kallum Pickering, an economist at Berenberg, a leading European investment and private bank, told Belfast Telegraph. "Rather than a weak first quarter, a strong second quarter and an OK third quarter, disappointingly, data now show that the economy has been growing below trend all year."

On a positive note, real household disposable income increased by 0.5 percent between the second and third quarters of 2015. Also, GDP in volume terms increased by 2.9 percent between 2013 and 2014, unrevised from the previous estimate, which is in line with the pre-downturn (1997 to 2007) annual average of 3.0 percent.