Britain's economy grew much stronger than expected in February, prior to the start of the Middle East war, official data showed Thursday ahead of a likely hit from the U.S.-Iran conflict.
U.K. gross domestic product growth climbed to 0.5 percent in February compared with expansion of 0.1 percent in January, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.
Analysts' consensus forecast had been for GDP growth of 0.1 percent in February, while Britain's output ahead is expected to suffer from soaring energy prices caused by the war.
