Latest data released by ONS - 10 August 2018

  • Prior +0.2%
  • Q2 GDP +1.3% vs +1.3% y/y expected
  • Prior +1.2%
  • Private consumption +0.3% vs +0.4% q/q expected
  • Government spending +0.4% vs +0.3% q/q expected
  • Gross fixed capital formation +0.8% vs +0.7% q/q expected
  • Exports -3.6% vs +0.7% q/q expected
  • Imports -0.8% vs +0.8% q/q expected
  • Total business investment +0.5% vs +0.4% q/q expected
  • Monthly GDP (June) +0.1% vs +0.2% m/m expected
  • Index of services (June) 0.0% vs +0.2% m/m expected
  • Index of services (June) +0.5% vs +0.6% 3m/3m expected

All in-line with expectations for the headline readings on the GDP report.

Looking at the details, household spending in Q2 was at +0.3% q/q and +1.1% y/y. The annual reading is the weakest growth since Q1 2012. Meanwhile, business investment grew by 0.8% y/y which is the weakest annual growth since Q4 2016.

Not the shiniest of reports, but the overall figures show a bit of an improvement to Q1 at the very least.

All eyes will now turn to Q3 data to see if there is any further improvement or if this is just as good as it will get for the UK economy, with Brexit woes still stringing things along.

The report here isn't really going to move the pound by much. GBP/USD currently at 1.2757 barely changed from the release here in spite of better-than-expected factory output data.