UK economy picks up before expected growth slowdown

LONDON: Britain's economy picked up speed in the third quarter, official data confirmed Thursday, ahead of years of weaker-than-expected growth on poor productivity and gathering clouds over Brexit.

Gross domestic product grew 0.4 percent in the third quarter, up slightly from 0.3 percent in the April-June period, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as it confirmed last month's initial estimate.

The data came one day after the government warned in its annual budget that Britain's economy would grow much slower than expected over the next five years.

The ONS on Thursday said that "services remained the strongest contributor to GDP growth" in the third quarter.