On announcing the figures, the Office of National Statistics said there were a number of one-off events that contributed to the growth of 0.2% including the Royal Wedding and the Japanese earthquake though it is not possible to say precisely what their net overall impact might have been.
Ian Kernohan, economist at Royal London Asset Management, took thisone step further, commenting: “A more accurate picture of the economy during the second quarter of 2011 will not be available for some time, perhaps years. Thanks to the Royal Wedding and the Japanese earthquake, the MPC was already expecting quite a soft number so I don’t think this data will materially change their view about what is going on.
“The big picture remains unchanged: the UK economy is going through a major rebalancing, from private and public consumption to net exports and business investment, which will take several years to complete.”
The ONS also confirmed total services output grew by 0.5% in Q2 compared with a 0.9% rise in Q1, the biggest contribution coming from business services and finance, at 0.7% (0.4% in Q1).
Total production output dropped by 1.4% (down 0.1% in Q1) while manufacturing dropped by 0.3% (up by 0.7% in Q1).
Elsewhere, transport, storage and communication increased by 1.1% (2.5% in Q1); unsurprisingly, government and other services remained flat (up 1.1%); and construction output grew by 0.5% (down 3.4% in Q1).
