UNITED KINGDOM
<strong>Q3 growth disappoints</strong>
The economy grew more slowly than previously thought in third quarter, before the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 posed a further threat to the recovery later in the year, official data showed yesterday. GDP increased 1.1 percent in the July-to-September period, weaker than a preliminary growth estimate of 1.3 percent. That was slower than the economy’s 5.4 percent bounce-back in the second quarter, when many COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, the Office for National Statistics said. Business investment fell 2.5 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months and was nearly 12 percent below its pre-COVID-19 pandemic