London reclaimed the top spot, with the East Midlands slipping into second place. It was a strong performance for the capital with our estimate showing that it grew by around 3.7%y/y, well above the UK average. All of the regional economies have now surpassed their pre-crisis peaks.
Introduction
If the first three months of the year was a manufacturing story, the second has been about services. The top performing sectors were professional, scientific & medical; administrative & support and distribution & transport services.
London's star turn has in large part been due to its professional, scientific and technical services sector. ICT and administrative and support services was also a boon, as they make up a significant part of the city’s economy. While the capital continues to create jobs, average earnings have actually been falling over the past year. This presents a puzzle, one that we hope will be resolved for the better.
At the local area level, we estimate that it was Inner London East that took the top spot, pipping Milton Keynes to the post. The area has proven to be highly competitive over the past decade, which we estimate provided a significant boost to the growth stemming from its strengths in business services. East Merseyside, Bath, Cambridgeshire and Inverness made up the remainder of the top spots.
For this edition, we have extended our coverage to include Scotland and Wales. Statistics Scotland provide estimates of Gross Value Added, which are up to date to Q2 and which we have used as the basis for our growth tracker there.
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