LONDON: Foreign trade put the biggest drag on record on British economic growth last quarter, as a weakening global economy and surging demand for imports slowed Britain’s recovery from the financial crisis, data showed on Friday.

The economy grew 0.5 per cent in the third quarter, the Office for National Statistics said, confirming a preliminary reading and slowing from 0.7pc growth between April and June.

The slowdown reflects a global weakening led by emerging markets such as China, while exporters have struggled with the rise in sterling this year.

But the data was in line with a forecast in a Reuters poll, and sterling edged up against the euro and dollar on the day, reducing some of its earlier losses.

Consumer spending remained strong. But trade lopped 1.5 percentage points off the economic expansion from July to September. That marked the biggest quarterly drag on gross domestic product growth since records began in 1997 and a sharp turnaround from the second quarter when trade boosted GDP.

Imports surged by the most in nearly 10 years, up 5.5pc from the second quarter and overshadowing a much weaker rise in exports.

Overall the economy grew 2.3pc compared with the same period a year ago, down from 2.4pc in the second quarter and lower than 2.9pc growth for all of 2014, when Britain outpaced all other major advanced economies.

Scott Bowman, an economist with Capital Economics, said he expected the slowdown to be temporary despite the obstacles posed by Britain’s planned referendum on its membership of the European Union and the government’s squeeze on public spending.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2015