Yesterday was a golden day for the Despite Brexiteers – those who try to frame every piece of good economic news as if it is somehow a great surprise and shouldn’t really have happened. BMW announced that it is to build the electric version of the Mini in Britain, Amazon announced it was doubling the size of its research team in Britain, while according to the CBI, output from factories is growing at its fastest rate in 20 years.
Today, though, comes news which is firmly on the other side of the fence: the ONS’s first estimate for economic growth has come in at 0.3 per cent. This is a little higher than the 0.2 per cent it measured in the first quarter, and a comfortable distance from the recession which many predicted in the wake of a Brexit vote, but a disappointment nevertheless.
The release to some extent contradicts yesterday’s news: output from factories over the past quarter seemed to grow at its fastest rate in 20 years (so says the CBI) while simultaneously manufacturing seems to be shrinking (according to the ONS).
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