The UK continued to show economic recovery in June with growth soaring higher than expected.
Although the government postponed the full easing of sanctions for four weeks until July 19, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said growth in June nearly doubled as fast as 0.6% in May.
Preliminary estimates of the UK’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reported a 1% increase in June driven by retail, restaurants and hotels, according to the ONS. This reading is better than the market expects to rise 0.8%.
Meanwhile, GDP growth in the second quarter of this year met expectations with an expansion of 4.8% in the three months, April to June from a contraction of 1.6% in the first quarter.
UK Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said the latest published reading showed that the economy was growing and showing signs of a very strong recovery.
Sunak also said there were still challenges to be overcome, but he was confident of the economic strength and resilience of the British people. "With the fastest quarterly growth rate among the G7 economies, it has exceeded expectations", he added.
Even so, the pound failed to react significantly following this encouraging data by trading around the same price at 1.3870 against the US dollar.
