Economic Indicators, September 2011

Weak data over the past month has raised concerns over the health of the UK economy. Surveys pointed to declining demand in the manufacturing and services sectors, while a sharp fall in new orders was recorded in the construction sector. Unemployment rose over the most recent quarter, and the ONS left unchanged, at 0.2%, its initial estimate of GDP growth in Q2 2011 (compared with Q1 2011). Weak economic data in the US and eurozone economies only add to the increasingly pessimistic outlook for the UK.