GDP increased by 0.7% in Q2 2015

Figures indicate “Britain motoring ahead.”

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures have been released this morning and they indicate that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has increased by 0.7% in the second quarter of 2015.

Seen as the main indicator of GDP, the latest figures show that the rise in Q2, which is from April to June, is higher than the 0.4% recorded in the first quarter of the year (January to March).

Undoubtedly, the latest set of figures is a shot in the arm for the country’s economy and many of the industrial groupings within this, but it should be pointed out that the figures in the latest release are a preliminary estimate.

Currently, data content is less than half of the total necessary for the final output estimate.

Therefore, today’s findings are subject to revision when more data becomes available, though these are typically small.

As a result, the figures have pleased the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, who took to his personal Twitter account just after they were released at 9.30am.

He said that the 0.7 growth of GDP “shows Britain motoring ahead with (the) economy producing as much per head as ever before. We must stay on the road we’ve set out on.”

When compared to the same quarter of last year, today’s GDP estimate is favourable, with a rate that is 2.6% higher than Q2 2014.

It continues the economic recovery since the pre-economic downturn peak of Q1 2008. Since that quarter to this one, GDP is estimated to be 5.2% higher.

The figures also brought good news in some of the main industrial groupings too.

In production, GDP was estimated to have increased by 1%, with the services sector also showing a rise of 0.7%.

Construction growth is at a flat rate but as other previous output figures from the ONS show, the industry is performing well when compared to the previous year.

Of the four main industrial groupings, only agriculture has seen a decrease in the second quarter of the year, but the overall picture is one that has brought good news.

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