U.K. Business Investment Weakened Ahead of Brexit Vote
August 26 2016 - 5:21AM
Dow Jones News
By Wiktor Szary and Nicholas Winning
LONDON--U. K. business investment fell slightly year-over-year
in the three months running up to June's vote on the country's
European Union's membership, official data showed Friday, signaling
that the referendum uncertainty may have weighed on the country's
business climate.
Business investment decreased by 0.8% in the April-June period
compared with the same period a year earlier, the Office for
National Statistics said, and stood at GBP43.9 billion ($58.05
billion). Compared with the first quarter, it grew by 0.5%.
The ONS also confirmed its earlier estimates of the gross
domestic product growth figures for the same period. The U.K.
economy grew by 0.6% quarter-on-quarter, the data showed, and by
2.2% from the same period last year. In annualized terms, the U.K.
economy grew by 2.4%.
While the reporting period included the national vote on EU
membership, whose shock result has since brought the pound down by
some 11% against the dollar, the ONS said there was currently "very
little" anecdotal evidence that the referendum had any impact on
the pace of economic growth in that time.
Write to Nicholas Winning at nick.winning@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 26, 2016 05:06 ET (09:06 GMT)
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