UK economy recovers

Its official, in the second quarter April – June 2014 the UK gross domestic product grew by 0.8% and is now bigger than it was before the financial crisis that began six years ago.

The state of the economy always attracts politically biased commentary, but reading between the lines it would appear that we are making steady progress.

Interestingly, most of the growth in the second quarter came from the services sector. In the same period the agricultural sector fell by 0.2% with a similar reduction in the construction sector.

These internal differences in the rate of growth, or lack of it, mirror expectations for the global economy. The current conflict in Eastern Ukraine, the Gaza strip and Syria continue to destabilise economic activity.

Overall the IMF has reduced its growth forecast for the global economy from 3.7% to 3.4%.

The largest upgrade in expectations is for the UK. The IMF now considers that our economy will grow by 3.2% (previous forecast was 2.8%) during 2014.

George Osborne has commented:

"Thanks to the hard work of the British people, today we reach a major milestone in our long term economic plan. But there is still a long way to go – the 'great recession' was one of the deepest of any major economy and cost Britain six years.

"Now we owe it to hardworking taxpayers not to repeat the mistakes of the past and instead to continue with the plan that is delivering economic security and a brighter future for all."

Be interesting to see how this increase in our national economic fortunes spills down to the British people.