Britain no longer an economic outlier after ‘extraordinary’ GDP upgrade by ONS

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Panmure Gordon chief economist Simon French called the revision “extraordinary” and said “the entire UK economic narrative – post pandemic – has just been revised away”. But if we stick to the plan we can look forward to healthy growth which, according to the IMF, will be faster than Germany, France, and Italy in the long term.” The changes, which added almost 2 per cent to the size of Britain’s economy, mean the UK no longer has the worst growth record among G7 countries since 2019. “While this is being felt across the manufacturing industry, business-to-business companies are especially hard hit.” And house prices fell by 5.3 per cent annually in August, taking the average property value to £259,153, Nationwide Building Society said, marking the biggest annual percentage drop since July 2009. Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “August saw a further softening in the annual rate of house price growth to minus 5.3 per cent, from minus 3.8 per cent in July, the weakest rate since July 2009.”