Britain grew at the slowest pace of any of the world’s advanced economies in the first three months of the year, after official figures showed that Italy had performed better than estimated.
The Italian economy expanded by 0.4 per cent in the first quarter, according to revised figures, up from an initial estimate of 0.2 per cent, after new data revealed a boost to its services sector.
Italy initially had joined the UK in delivering growth of 0.2 per cent for the first quarter. The revised figures, however, mean that Britain has fallen from being the fastest growing economy of any G7 nation to being at the bottom of the league table.
In the fourth quarter, the UK expanded by 0.7 per cent, putting it ahead of any other G7 nation quarter-on-quarter and making it the second fastest growing economy for the year after Germany.
The disappointing performance has been attributed to a fall in household spending after the UK recorded the biggest quarterly fall in retail sales in seven years.
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Philip Shaw, an economist at Investec, said: “While the story of 2017 is likely to be one of sluggish consumer spending on the back on rising inflation, retail sales in the first quarter were exceptionally weak.
“The second quarter should see a rebound, but sluggish growth is a reminder of how important a decent set of trade deals is, as we begin to negotiate [with the EU]”.