Can consumers keep the British economy going?

GDP watchers will be out in force this week as third-quarter figures are revealed

This week's big economic number is GDP for the third quarter, due on Wednesday morning. Economists reckon output rose by 0.3% or 0.4% in the three months to the end of September.

Assuming the figure isn't lower than expectations, economy watchers will turn quickly to the underlying trends, such as business investment. The economy has confounded predictions of a sharp post-Brexit vote slowdown or recession, mainly because of resilient consumer spending.

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