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Add the United Kingdom to the long line of countries that have gotten into more economic trouble that expected. The Office for National Statistics cut its figure for third-quarter GDP growth to 0.9%, in place of the 1% previously posted. That puts the nation on the cusp of a recession, like so many others in the region. Many there already have fallen into a period of “negative growth.”

The Office for National Statistics reports:

• UK gross domestic product (GDP) in volume terms increased by 0.9 per cent between the second and third quarter of 2012, revised from the previously estimated increase of 1.0 per cent.
• Output of the production industries rose by 0.7 per cent revised down from the previously estimated 0.9 per cent increase. Manufacturing output rose by 0.7 per cent, revised down from the previously estimated increase of 0.9 per cent.
• Output of the service industries rose by 1.2 per cent, revised down from the previously estimated increase of 1.3 per cent.
• Output of the construction industry fell by 2.5 per cent, revised up from the previously estimated 2.6 per cent fall.
• Household final consumption expenditure increased by 0.4 per cent in volume terms in the latest quarter, revised down from the previously estimated increase of 0.6 per cent.
• In current price terms, compensation of employees rose by 0.7 per cent in the third quarter of 2012, revised down from the previously estimated increase of 1.4 per cent.
• The households’ saving ratio was 7.7 per cent in 2012 quarter three, up from 7.4 per cent in the previous quarter.

Douglas A. McIntyre