Our monthly estimates of GDP suggest that output grew by 0.7 per cent in the three months ending in January 2017 after growth of 0.6 per cent in the three months ending in December 2016.

Oriol Carreras, Research Fellow at NIESR, said "Our estimates suggest economic output in the three months ending in January 2017 was 0.7 per cent higher than in the previous three months. Driving growth is strong momentum in consumer spending combined with a pickup in output growth of manufacturing." NIESR's latest quarterly forecast (published 1 st February 2017) projected GDP growth of 2 per cent per annum for 2016 and 1.7 per cent in 2017 (see here for the associated press release).