This was Kamal Ahmed's take on the economy on last night's BBC News at Ten:
So Hugh, if we remember to the earlier part of the year, the economy was a rather sickly patient. If we look at the figure for growth from February to April, that came in at the princely of 0% - i.e. there was no growth. Terrible weather in the winter, more than 30 days of freezing temperatures, the usual post-Christmas lull in the economy led to that very poor figure. Today, as you say, a much better figure, 0.6% growth for the UK economy. That's building on a trend from last month of 0.4%, so there is some growth in the trend. Why is it happening? Well, two big sectors are doing better. They are construction and retail. If there is no snow on the ground, you can build houses, house building has been strong in the last 3-4 months. And retail. As you say, the World Cup and hot weather. Put those together, we're out more, we're shopping more, enjoying restaurants and entertainment. So that has been why it has been stronger. But it's not quite time to hang out the economic bunting in all senses. That Brexit uncertainty is still weighing on the economy, though of course if there was better news, as you've been hearing earlier in the programme, that might boost that. But the final point is that growth today is in exactly the same place as it was this time last year. So, no substance, no change of substance on the economy so far.
