UK GDP misses expectations for Q4

Quarterly and annualised UK growth figures for Q4 2014 have narrowly missed expectations after the construction sector underwhelmed at the end of the year.

Announcing its preliminary estimate for Q4 2014 growth this morning, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said UK GDP growth stood at 0.5% for the period, below the 0.6% figure estimated by economists and the 0.7% growth reported in Q3. GDP was 2.7% higher in Q4 2014 compared with the same quarter a year ago, while GDP in 2014 as a whole was up 2.6% on 2013, compared with economists' forecast of 2.8%. The figure remains relatively healthy compared with the fortunes of many other developed economies. Construction, a notoriously volatile sector, saw output contract by 1.8% on the qu...