UK GDP growth shows consumers spending despite Brexit worries | Larry Elliott

George Osborne has been proved wrong in his forecasts of doom - the economy has stayed afloat thanks to the service sector

It was supposed to be the moment of truth. Had the economy performed as George Osborne predicted it would in the fevered days before the referendum, late January 2017 would have been the moment when official data showed that output in the UK had contracted in both the third and fourth quarters of 2016 - the technical definition of a recession.

Instead, Philip Hammond was in the happy position of being able to use a visit to Microsoft's UK headquarters in Reading to announce that growth in the final three months of 2016 had been 0.6% - exactly the same as in the previous two quarters.

Related: UK GDP figures show solid end to 2016 despite Brexit vote

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