Another Pleasant Surprise from the Official Statistics

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Byline: Bill Gleeson

YESTERDAY'S provisional figure for GDP growth was a pleasant surprise, especially after all of last week's anguish over government spending cuts. At a rate of 0.8% for the third quarter, UK economic growth is powering ahead faster than many anticipated.

Many forecasters had pencilled in half that growth rate. Combined with the 1.2% enjoyed in the second quarter, the data suggests that annual growth will exceed official forecasts by a significant margin. All of the growth is coming from the private sector, leading to the very real prospect that private sector job creation will be strong enough to offset the job losses expected in the public sector …