020 7898 0500The main highlight of last week was the publication of the Brexit impact assessment, which showed that the UK economy will likely take a hit irrespective of which scenario plays out. We will be in for a choppy time over the coming years if the assessments prove accurate. On Friday we saw some faintly underwhelming data with the release of construction, manufacturing and industrial production data.
Manufacturing grew by 0.1% in January against an expectation of 0.2%, while across the year, industrial production hit 1.6% against an expected 1.8%. Still, let’s be thankful for small mercies – at least both grew. Alas, this wasn’t the case for the construction sector which contracted for the ninth month in a row. That’s rather alarming and is largely down to an unexpected decline in housebuilding. Let us hope it picks up before long. In addition, the UK’s balance of trade deficit widened by £600 million to £3.074 billion in January.
It is an extremely quiet week for UK economic data overall, although we will see the Spring Budget 2018 tomorrow which should give us more than enough to think about.
