Jeffrey: Eurozone crisis cost the UK 1% of GDP in 2012

GDP data published for Q4 2012 afforded a slightly better perspective on the year as a whole.

Growth was disappointing when judged in the context of forecasts made at the start of the year. However, there are trends that are more encouraging. We have already seen some upwards revisions to official growth estimates. When the ONS published its preliminary GDP ‘guess’, it indicated there was no growth during the year; now it is telling us the economy expanded by 0.3% – not much, but better than nothing. However, the conundrum remains that total employment grew by 2.1% and total hours worked increased 1.9%. The contrast is even starker when we look at market sector output, which i...