London | UK growth slowed sharply in the third quarter to 1.3% due to shortages of goods and workers, combined with the rebound in COVID-19 cases caused by the lifting of all health restrictions.
Gross domestic product (GDP) thus marks a brake on the second quarter when it rebounded by 5.5% thanks to a gradual lifting from March of a confinement of several months.
However, this GDP remains 2.1% below its level at the end of 2019, before the pandemic, notes the National Statistics Office on Thursday in a press release.
In the middle of the summer season, the main sectors that contributed to this growth were hotels and restaurants, art and entertainment, and even health services, with vigorous household consumption.
But “business investment has remained well below before the pandemic for the three months ended in September,” said Grant Fitzner of the ONS on Twitter.
“The trade deficit has also widened because exports of goods to countries outside the EU have fallen while imports, especially fuel, from countries outside the EU have increased,” he said. .
The ONS is also observing a drop in inventories, “probably reflecting some of the difficulties in the supply chains”.
“The economy continues to recover from covid and thanks to programs such as partial unemployment”, a measure implemented in response to the pandemic and which however ended at the end of September, “the unemployment rate has been falling for 8 months and we plan to be the fastest growing G7 country this year, ”said Minister of Economy Rishi Sunak.
He admits, however, that “as the world reopens we still have difficulties to overcome”.
“It is encouraging to see that the economy remained dynamic in September but it cannot be denied that it was a difficult quarter for companies, with constraints on supply,” notes Alpesh Paleja, economist at CBI, the main employers’ organization.
“The combination of rising covid cases and shortages of materials, components and workers weighed heavily on growth,” he adds.