LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's economic growth probably slowed in the three months to April, the National Institute of Economic Social Research said on Thursday after data showed weaker-than-expected output in manufacturing and other sectors in early 2017.
"We estimate that growth slowed to 0.2 percent in the three months to April 2017, from 0.3 percent in the first quarter of this year," Rebecca Piggott, a research fellow at NIESR, said.
"Growth in the service sector has remained subdued, consistent with softer consumer spending growth. We expect the squeeze on household real incomes to continue as inflation accelerates throughout the year, reaching almost 3.5 percent by year end."
Pigott said the Bank of England - which kept interest rates unchanged on Thursday - was likely to continue to tolerate the rise in inflation which has been driven in large part by the fall in the value of the pound since last year's Brexit vote.