The United Kingdom Gross Domestic Product fell by more than expected in the first quarter of 2009 according to a report by the Office of National Statistics today. The U.K. GDP data showed that quarterly GDP fell by 1.9 percent in the January through March quarter following a decline of 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008. The 1.9 percent GDP decline marked the largest decrease since the third quarter of 1979.
On an annual basis, the first quarter GDP fell by 4.1 percent from the level of the first quarter of 2008 and marked the largest annual decline since 1980. The 2008 fourth quarter registered a decline of 2.0 percent. Today’s data surpassed economic forecasts which were expecting the quarterly GDP to decline by 1.5 percent and the annual GDP rate to fall by 3.8 percent.
Contributing to the contraction in GDP was a decline of total production output in the first quarter by 5.5 percent after falling by 4.5 percent in the fourth quarter. Construction activity fell by 2.4 percent while total services output saw a decline by 1.2 percent in the first quarter after a 0.8 percent decline in the fourth quarter. Other notable declines for the quarter were business services & finance which fell by 1.8 percent and transport, storage & communication which decreased by 2.9 percent. Positive contributors to the GDP data were agriculture, forestry & fishing output which increased by 0.3 percent and government & other services output which advanced by 0.5 percent for the quarter.
UK Retail Sales gain in March to beat forecasts.
Retail Sales data was also released today out of the United Kingdom and showed that retail sales rose more than expected in March. The UK retail sales data, released by National Statistics, increased by 0.3 percent in March following a revised decrease of 2.0 percent in February. On an annual basis, retail sales increased by 1.5 percent over the March 2008 time period following a 0.4 percent annual gain in February. Today’s sales data surpassed market forecasts that were expecting sales would fall by 0.3 percent in March to register an annual increase of only 1.1 percent.
Contributing to the increase in retail sales was a gain of 0.6 percent in predominantly food stores while non-store retailing & repair also increased for the month by 3.4 percent. Non-food stores saw sales fall by 0.2 percent in March.
