King: Royal wedding to hit GDP in Q2

Bank of England governor Mervyn King has warned the extended holiday to celebrate the royal wedding last month will hurt GDP growth.

King, unveiling the Bank of England's quarterly inflation report, said the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton could have a similar impact on growth to the Jubilee Holiday in 2002. He said: "The effect of the royal wedding is likely to dampen GDP growth in Q2 this year, but the size of the impact is very uncertain. "As the extra bank holiday was in April, companies may be able to catch up any lost output in the remaining months of Q2. But the proximity of the royal wedding to Easter might have encouraged even more companies to move their plant closures forward than did so in ...