Economic Indicators, February 2013

The most recent ONS estimate showed that GDP contracted by 0.3% in Q4 2012, following growth of 0.9% in Q3. ONS stated that this may be partly due to “fall back” from the more buoyant growth seen in Q3 2012 when the Olympics occurred, and partly due to “significantly reduced” oil and gas extraction in Q4 2012. In the three months to November 2012, there were 29.68 million people employed, an all time high. However, the employment rate was 71.4%, still below the rate of 73.0% seen in the three months to May 2008. In January 2013, the FTSE-100 saw its best start to the year since 1989, suggesting investors are becoming more confident about the UK’s economic prospects.