(Bloomberg) -- Wales posted the strongest economic performance among U.K. regions in the final three months of 2018.
The country of 3.1 million people saw its economy expand by 0.3%, compared with 0.1% in neighboring England and 0.2% for the U.K. as a whole.
The estimates are contained in full regional GDP figures published on Thursday by the Office for National Statistics for the first time. Figures for Scotland and Northern Ireland were already available, and the new data for England and Wales are based on almost 2 million value-added tax returns.
“These new estimates and the move towards local economic statistics represent a step change in the economic insight available to policy makers and business leaders across the U.K.,” said Rob Kent Smith, the ONS's head of GDP.
England's meager growth rate was driven by a 0.8% expansion in the southeast, though output in London stagnated as construction shrank and financial services contracted at their fastest pace in more than three years. The northwest was the only part of the U.K. where output fell.
Wales's performance was attributed to strong growth in construction, education and transport and storage. GDP growth from a year earlier was 1.8%, above the U.K. average.
GDP grew by 0.2% in Scotland compared with the previous quarter and by 0.1% in Northern Ireland.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Atkinson in London at a.atkinson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Brian Swint
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