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LONDON, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- The British economy expanded by 0.4 percent over the three months from July to September, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) reported on Friday.
"While it is slower growth than the previous quarter, it is still reasonable growth, but relatively subdued," James Warren, research fellow at NIESR, told Xinhua.
Warren added that NIESR estimates suggested that economic growth slowed in the third quarter to 0.4 percent quarter on quarter, from 0.7 percent in the second quarter.
He said that while retail sales had kept afloat in recent months, the production sector had acted as a drag on economic growth, with an estimated decline in output of 0.2 percent in the third quarter.
"Largely, this seems to be caused by a weakness in the production sector. Output contracted in the production sector throughout the third quarter," Warren added. "On the other side, you have retail sales remaining quite buoyant and given that this is about a third of the final consumption data, it suggests that consumption is supporting growth; it is households that are the drivers of growth rather than other parts of the economy."
Warren said it was "probably too early to read any Brexit effects in these figures."
"We still have a negative output gap and we would expect growth to be higher as we chip away at this output gap. One quarter's worth of data is probably not enough to make a strong point about this," he added. Enditem
