The British economy grew slightly despite the strikes

The British economy grew in the first quarter of this year. During that period, the UK suffered strikes in many sectors and car sales were historically low, the UK Statistics Office reported. This led to the economy contracting in March, while a minimum growth of 0.1% was recorded during the entire quarter.

March resulted in an unexpected contraction of 0.3 percent. Analysts were expecting slight growth, in line with the rest of the quarter. The services sector had a bad month and sales in stores were also disappointing. March was a cold month, but strikes by railway workers, nurses and civil servants also had an impact.

The forecast for May is not much more positive. The coronation of British King Charles created an additional public holiday, which, according to economists' calculations, could lead to a 0.7 percent contraction in May. Aside from that, the economic outlook is now slightly more positive than last year. As in the Netherlands, energy unrest has subsided somewhat.