Growth figures to be hit

Britain's flagging industrial base is in danger of taking the gloss off the strongest growth for five years, experts have warned.

The economy powered ahead by 1 per cent in the three months to September – aided by a Jubilee bounce-back and the Olympics – but the Office for National Statistics may need to revise this down in its second estimate of GDP growth. Experts said this was due to flagging production, which accounts for nearly a fifth of the economy overall.

IHS Global Insight's Howard Archer said: "The risk that third-quarter GDP growth could be trimmed to 0.9 per cent stems from the fact that the latest data indicate that industrial production expanded by 0.9 per cent quarter-on-quarter rather than by 1.1 per cent."

The Investec economist Victoria Clarke said: "The early estimates are even more tentative than normal, not helped by data uncertainties associated with the Olympics. There is potential for a larger than typical revision next week."