GDP shows economy in ‘stasis’

The Chancellor, George Osborne, said the figures are “an encouraging sign the economy is healing. Despite a tough economic backdrop, we are making progress.”

However Charles Levy, senior economist at the Big Innovation Centre, said:

“The UK has avoided a technical triple dip recession, however our economy remains in stasis. Half a decade since the onset of the recession, the picture remains one of stagnation, with the UK struggling to find new sources of growth.

“The government must respond to this persistent poor performance with increased public investment in projects which can start quickly and kick-start growth.

“To sustain any recovery we also need to speed up progress on tackling the structural issues that are holding back innovation and growth.

“This means pushing on with a bold and ambitious reform of our financial system, increased investment in science and research facilities, and a real focus on unlocking the markets created by new technologies such as big
data, nanotechnologies and advances in genomics.”

The services sector grew by 0.6% in the quarter, transport and communications grew 1.4%, but construction activity fell 2.5% and is more than 18% lower than it was before the start of the financial crisis in 2008.

The Big Innovation Centreis an initiative from The Work Foundationand Lancaster University that aims to make the UK a global open innovation hub.