BELOW-average UK growth continued into the third quarter, a survey from British Chambers of Commerce signals, with recruitment difficulties faced by the services sector at an all-time high.
British Chambers director general Adam Marshall warned: “These figures reinforce what we are hearing from businesses up and down the country – the uncertainty over Brexit and the lack of bold moves to boost business at home are starting to bite.”
The UK grew by only 0.1% and 0.4% respectively in the first and second quarters.
Read More: Scots growth slows as Brexit casts its shadow
British Chambers said “all signs suggest that this year’s annual economic growth is set to be the lowest since the financial crisis”. Its survey of 5,600 businesses showed the percentage of UK services companies attempting to recruit was at its lowest for 25 years, And, of the firms in the sector that did try to recruit, the percentage experiencing difficulties rose to its highest since the survey began in 1989
Read More: Analysis: Huge uncertainty is last thing companies need
Suren Thiru, BCC head of economics, said: “These results suggest that the current period of below-average GDP growth continued into the third quarter of 2018. Activity in the services sector slackened in Q3 with the key indicators of domestic and international activity softening. That said, services is still likely to have been the main driver of...growth.”
Read More: Ian McConnell: Tory Brexit tale of sound and fury but this is ‘unhinged self-sabotage
He added: “The manufacturing sector remains a weak spot, with export activity slowing sharply in the quarter. Brexit uncertainty and the increasing cost of imported raw materials is weighing on the UK’s external position – further evidence that the persistent weakness in sterling is doing more harm than good. Net trade is likely to have contributed precious little to UK GDP growth in Q3.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here