UK economy sees marginal contraction in April as services sector cools

• Monthly GDP -0.1% vs -0.1% m/m expected
• Prior +0.3%
• Services output -0.2% vs -0.1% m/m expected
• Prior +0.3%
• Industrial output 0.0% vs +0.1% m/m expected
• Prior -0.2%
• Manufacturing output +0.4% vs -0.2% m/m expected
• Prior +1.2%
• Construction output +0.1% vs -0.4% m/m expected
• Prior +1.5%

The UK economy marginally contracted in April, as the services sector slumped after the better showing in March.

Looking into the details, 8 of the 14 subsectors in the services industry showed a decline in activity/output on the month. The largest negative contribution to services sector output came from administrative and support service activities, which fell by 2.2%.

Meanwhile, the second-largest negative contribution came from arts, entertainment and recreation (down 4.3%). This was driven by a fall of 9.1% in sports activities and amusement and recreation activities. Of note, this was the largest negative contribution from a single industry to both services output (-0.07%) and real GDP growth (-0.06%).

All in all, things are not too bad for the UK economy during the onset of the Middle East conflict. That being said, rising price pressures will eventually weigh further on economic activity and that will be the key risk factor to watch out for. But in the three months to April, the overall economic performance is seen holding up quite modestly (+0.7%).

This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.