The national accounts now published for the fourth quarter of 1969 confirm the estimate given in February's Review that output then was moving ahead a little faster, accelerating the recovery which had followed the first quarter's temporary drop in activity. Each of the three available GDP measures agrees in indicating this movement, although as usual, there is some difference as to the exact amount. As expected, the momentum of export growth slackened, but not by as much as anticipated; on the other hand imports proved to have risen quite strongly against our assumption of some fall and the level of investment proved rather lower than expected. However, perhaps the most important unexpected development indicated by the accounts for the fourth quarter of last year was the strong recovery of stockbuilding.
Determinants for variations in export growth
