UK economic growth picks up as stockpiling bolsters manufacturing

Britain’s economy strengthened in the first three months of the year, with growth of 0.5% helped by unprecedented stockpiling by manufacturers fearful of the impact from a no-deal Brexit. It was an improvement on 0.2% growth in the previous three months and was bolstered by the strongest quarterly performance for manufacturers since 1988, with factory output up 2.2%, according to the figures from the Office for National Statistics. However, widespread uncertainty about the Brexit negotiations proved to have a greater impact in March as the services sector and construction sectors went into reverse to leave GDP down 0.1% month on month.