Growth in Britain for the second quarter was weak, rising by 0.6 per cent in a revision down from 0.9 per cent, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The ONS said the revised figures were largely due to lower-than-anticipated manufacturing output.
Between the first and second quarters, production rose by 0.2 per cent, but manufacturing fell by 0.7 per cent. Output in the service industries, however, increased by 0.6 per cent.
In a explanatory note that accompanied the figures, the ONS said that, in comparison with the first estimate, today’s estimate uses firmer data, particularly for the final month of the quarter and for changes in inventories over the quarter.
There is also evidence, the note says, that factories were shut down for longer than expected around the Jubilee holiday. Results for industrial production for June show a fall of a size that ONS did not anticipate when projecting growth for the preliminary estimate.
Economic output, it said, was now only 1.2 per cent higher than a year earlier since it had barely grown at all in the fourth quarter of last year and first quarter of this year.