Hot off the Office for National Statistics website today.
- GDP was estimated to have decreased by 0.3% in Q4 2012 compared with Q3 2012.
- Output of the production industries was estimated to have decreased by 1.8% in Q4 2012 compared with Q3 2012, following an increase of 0.7% between Q2 2012 and Q3 2012.
- Construction sector output was estimated to have increased by 0.3% in Q4 2012 compared with Q3 2012, following a decrease of 2.5% between Q2 2012 and Q3 2012.
- Output of the service industries was estimated to have been flat in Q4 2012 compared with Q3 2012, following an increase of 1.2% between Q2 2012 and Q3 2012.
- GDP was estimated to have been flat in Q4 2012, when compared with Q4 2011.
- GDP is estimated to have been flat between 2011 and 2012. Users are, however, reminded that this figure is subject to revision in the second estimate of GDP when all quarters of 2012 are open for revision.
SSM comment:
But while the official policy of government, national and local, is the pursuit of economic growth, we are what ecological economist Hermann Daly has called a ‘failed growth economy’ which is beset by all manner of problems – you’ll have noticed the increase in destitute people on our streets, for example. A right size economy will be planned and managed – just like a bicycle is not a motorbike with a broken engine – so as to maximise well-being, which includes real prosperity, while avoiding a collapse, Soviet Union 1990s-style, into extremes of poverty and despair.
Steady State Manchester 