The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) believes that this week’s new gross domestic product (GDP statistics suggest a three-tier economy.
Figures released on Thursday morning showed that the GDP growth in Q4 of 2015 was 0.5 per cent, following on from 0.4 per cent in Q3.
Although there was a 0.7 per cent rise for services in the quarter, there were small declines in production and construction output.
The annual GDP growth in the fourth quarter was 1.9 per cent and, for 2015 as a whole, the pace of expansion was 2.2 per cent, well below the 2.9 per cent recorded in 2014.
“Given the difficult international background it is not surprising that the UK failed to sustain the more impressive economic growth seen in 2014,” said BCC Chief Economist, David Kern.
“Services remains the main driver of the economy, while production and construction are down.
“The GDP figures demonstrate that the recovery remains fragile. While the services sector continues to grow, production is close to stagnation and the construction sector is now in recession.
“Every effort must be made to support both these sectors as we seek to rebalance the economy.”
