Britain's GDP grows 0.8% in Q2

Britain's gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2014 grew by 0.8 percent, the same as in the first quarter, data by Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed Friday.
The figures also showed the economy was now 0.2 percent above its pre-crisis peak in the first quarter of 2008. From peak to trough in 2009, the economy shrank by 7.2 percent.
Output of services industry in Britain last quarter increased by 1.0 percent compared with the first quarter of 2014, while the production industry grew by 0.4 percent. However, construction and agriculture output decreased by 0.5 and 0.2 percent respectively, said ONS.
The current 2010-based weights of the four industries' outputs are 77.8 percent (services), 15.2 percent (production), 6.3 percent (construction), and 0.7 percent (agriculture) respectively.
Compared with the same quarter a year ago, Britain's GDP was 3.1 percent higher in the second quarter of 2014, data showed.
George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer of Britain, said: "Thanks to the hard work of the British people, today we reach a major milestone in our long-term economic plan."
"The preliminary estimate of GDP brings the long-awaited news that the Britain economy has finally recovered all of the ground lost during the recession," said Samuel Tombs, the senior Britain economist in Capital Economics, a London-based economic research company.
Britain's economy performs strongly this year, some financial institutions raised British economic growth forecasts.
Earlier this week, the EY ITEM Club, an economic analysis company, said in its quarterly report that with 3.1 percent points expected GDP expansion for 2014, Britain is set to achieve the strong growth rate among the Group of Seven (G7) economies.
"Our forecast for GDP growth remains an above-consensus 3.3 percent this year, and a robust 3 percent in both 2015 and 2016," said Tombs.