Investing.com - The U.K. economy grew more than originally estimated in the last three months of the 2015, beating expectations, data showed on Thursday.
In a report, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said gross domestic product expanded by a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in the fourth quarter, an upward revision from the prior 0.5% and above expectations for no change to the data. The U.K.’s economy grew by 0.4% in the preceding quarter.
Year-over-year, U.K. economic growth was also upwardly revised to show a 2.1% expansion in the three months ended December 31. This compared to the prior estimate of 1.9% growth and beat the forecast which had not expected any changes. The U.K. economy expanded at an annualized rate of 2.1% in the third quarter of 2015.
Meanwhile, total business investment fell by a seasonally adjusted 2.0% in the fourth quarter, matching estimates, but a slightly lower decline than the previous estimate of 2.1%.
Additionally, the index of services in the U.K. inched up 0.9% in the fourth quarter, slightly above the consensus estimate for 0.8%.
GBP/USD was trading at 1.4387 from around 1.4362 ahead of the release of the data, while EUR/GBP was at 0.7891 from 0.7900 earlier.
Furthermore, European stock markets remained broadly lower. London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.57%, the EURO STOXX 50 dropped 1.01%, France's CAC 40 lost 1.09%, while Germany's DAX traded down 0.40%.