Investing.com - The UK economy grew at a faster pace in July with the rolling three months figure showing its fastest expansion in nearly a year, according to data released on Monday.
The Office of National Statistics said the economy grew 0.6% in the three months to July, picking up from the meager 0.4% expansion seen previous month.
Rolling three-month growth in July was the highest since August 2017.
Month-on-month, GDP increased by 0.3% in July, picking up from the prior month's 0.1% growth and beating consensus expectations for an expansion of 0.2%.
ONS head of GDP Rob Kent-Smith indicated that services grew particularly strongly while retail sales performed well, boosted by warm weather and the World Cup.
He also noted the bounce in the construction sector after a weak start to the year.
“The dominant service sector again led economic growth in the month of July with engineers, accountants and lawyers all enjoying a busy period, backed up by growth in construction, which hit another record high level,” Kent-Smith commented.
“However, production fell back, with manufacturing again slipping a little while energy generation and supply fell due to reduced demand,” he added.