LONDON: Britain’s financial system grew extra shortly than beforehand thought within the final three months of 2021 when the nation was hit by the Omicron wave of COVID-19 instances, pushed by larger well being spending, official knowledge confirmed on Thursday.
Gross home product on the earth’s fifth-biggest financial system elevated by 1.3% within the fourth quarter from the earlier three-month interval, the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics mentioned, stronger than a preliminary estimate of progress of 1.0%.
The ONS mentioned the most important contributors to the rise got here from human well being and social work actions, pushed by elevated visits to medical doctors firstly of the quarter, in addition to a big enhance in coronavirus testing and tracing and the extension of the vaccination program
That represented an acceleration from the financial system’s 0.9% progress within the third quarter however was properly under its 5.6% enlargement within the April-June interval of final yr when it was rebounding from COVID-19 lockdowns.
Traders count on the restoration to sluggish in 2022 as inflation heads for nearly 9% and households face the largest fall in dwelling requirements since no less than the Fifties, in line with forecasts by the federal government’s fiscal watchdog.
Households dipped into their lockdown financial savings to finance their spending. The saving ratio fell to six.8% of disposable revenue from 7.5% in third second quarter, approaching its stage of 6.0% instantly earlier than the pandemic, the ONS mentioned.
The extent of GDP on the finish of 2021 was 0.1% under the place it was on the finish of 2019, revised from a earlier estimate of 0.4% under its pre-pandemic stage. – Reuters