英国GDP严重收缩，股市会被借机打压。

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英国GDP严重收缩，相信股市会被借机打压......

UK Economy posts shock contraction in Q4 2010

By Ainsley Thomson and Nicholas Winning
   Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

LONDON (Dow Jones)--The U.K.'s economy shrunk for the first time in more than a year in the fourth quarter of 2010 as December's severe snow storms hit the services and construction sectors, official data showed Tuesday.

In its preliminary estimate, which is frequently revised at a later date, the Office of National Statistics said gross domestic product fell 0.5% between October and December after expanding by 0.7% in the third quarter. It is the first quarterly contraction in GDP since the third quarter of 2009.

The economy expanded 1.7% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, compared with growth of 2.7% on the year in the third quarter.

An ONS official said the extreme weather at the end of the 2010--which resulted in the coldest December in over 100 years--was likely to have been the main cause of the quarterly decrease in GDP.

The figures were much weaker than expected, with economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires last week forecasting the economy would grow 0.4% on the quarter and 2.6% on the year.

Economic growth in the fourth quarter would likely have been flat if there had been no weather-related disruptions, the ONS official said.

The services sector was particularly hard hit by the weather, while the construction sector was also affected, the ONS said.
Tuesday's data are likely to support the case for the Bank of England holding-off raising interest rates in the near term, despite a recent spike in the U.K.'s inflation rate.

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