Britain’s GDP rose slower than expected in the first quarter. The GDP reading has been unexpectedly revised down to 0.2 per cent from 0.3%. The majority of analysts were not anticipating a change to the reading and Sterling has dropped in response. The Office of National Statistics said there had been a slowdown "in consumer-focused industries, such as retail sales and accommodation". This means Britain was one of the worst-performing advanced economies, with only Italy and America also growing by around 0.2% in Q1 2017. France, Japan, Germany and Spain are all growing at a faster rate as well as the Eurozone as a whole. The British Pound fell from an early high of 1.30160 to around 1.29650 after the release.
The number of EU migrants leaving Britain in the wake of the Brexit vote has surged. Those leaving rose by 40,000 on 2015, with mainly EU citizens heading back home.The number of people arriving in the UK was 588,000 last year, versus 339,000 who left.
The price of bitcoin has doubled in a month and is up 180 per cent since the start of 2017. At the end of last year, one bitcoin was trading for £730 which was a record high at the time but the crypto currency has exceeded that level substantially, up 30 per cent since Friday and has hit £2,050. It is now twice the value of gold.
