Less-bad for builders is good for growth

BRITAIN'S economy may have grown fractionally faster than was previously thought in the first three months of the year, a new official measure of construction output suggested yesterday.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said construction output fell by 1.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of the year, a smaller decline than the 1.6 per cent drop recorded in GDP data released on 12 July, which was calculated according to a previous method.

Other things being equal, that could add 0.03 percentage points to GDP on the quarter.

The news comes ahead of the initial GDP estimate for the second quarter of the year, which is due to be published by the ONS on 23 July.