UK economy grew 0.5% in February, beating economists’ expectations by a long shot

• The U.K. economy grew by 0.5% in February, according to preliminary figures from the Office for National Statistics published Thursday, overshooting the 0.1% month-over-month expectation polled by Reuters.
• Both services and production grew by 0.5%, and construction grew by 1.0% in February. The rebound came after the economy grew by 0.1% in January (the first estimate from the ONS suggested the economy had flatlined).
• While the data for February was far better than expected, analysts said it will very much be viewed as backwards-looking data given subsequent events in the Middle East, with the U.S. and Iran launching military operations against Iran on Feb. 28. “I’m not really sure it’s reflective of actual conditions in the economy,” George Brown, senior economist at Schroders, told CNBC on Thursday, suggesting residual seasonality was affecting the data.
• “Obviously, this is stale data; we’re going into this new world with the Iran conflict. Going into that, while the February numbers would suggest we’re in a strong position, actually the situation on the ground is probably not quite like that,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”

(Source: Reuters)