It's official: Olympics gave Britain's economy a much-needed bump
Skift Take
Sometimes a bump is all a country needs to get thing clicking again. PM Cameron will try to use this success to move on from a summer filled with political failures.
So now we know what David Cameron meant when he said the good news would keep coming. The 1% expansion in GDP in Q3 was the strongest since the world economy felt the first tremors of the financial crisis in 2007, and well above City expectations. Having been shockingly bad three months ago, the growth figures were surprisingly good this time – although not quite as good as they looked.
Two special factors flattered the data for the third quarter. The first was the bounce back from the output lost as a result of the extra bank holiday in June, which probably accounted for half the increase. The second was the Olympics, ticket sales from which boosted GDP by 0.2 points.
As a result, genuine growth in Q3 was probably in the
