Britain's economy grew at its fastest pace for nine years in the second quarter, an unexpected revision to official data showed on Friday, but economists said a sharp slowdown was still on the cards. Strong construction activity caused the Office for National Statistics to boost its initial estimate of 1.1 percent GDP growth for the three months to June to 1.2 percent, against expectations for an unchanged reading. The upbeat data follows strong August retail and industrial orders surveys, suggesting that Britain's recovery from its deepest recession since World War Two had not wholly run out of steam. Growth was 0.3 percent in the first quarter. No economists expect a repeat of what was the strongest expansion since the first quarter of 2001, with the debate now focused on whether UK growth will just slow towards its trend of about 0.6 percent or slump in the face of a global downturn. “The expenditure breakdown of GDP shows that the recovery is built on very fragile foundations,” said Samuel Tombs of Capital Economics. “Total investment posted a larger than expected fall, while net trade made no contribution to GDP growth.” Financial markets have increasingly been pricing in a weak growth outturn for 2011 due to a lackluster US economy and looming public spending cuts across Europe.
