British economy grows 0.5% in quarter post Brexit vote

Britain’s economy grew by a better-than-expected 0.5 percent in the three months following the country’s vote in favour of exiting the European Union, official data showed Thursday.

Gross domestic product expanded in the third quarter of the year, although slightly weaker compared with growth of 0.7 percent in the three months to the end of June, when Britain voted in a referendum for Brexit, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.

However, analysts’ consensus forcecast had been for GDP growth of only 0.3 percent in the third quarter, or three months to the end of September.

The ONS added that output grew by 2.3 percent in the third quarter compared with one year earlier.

“The pattern of growth continues to be broadly unaffected following the EU referendum with a strong performance in the services industries offsetting falls in other industrial groups,” the ONS said.