Consumers drive UK eco**my, defying expected Brexit vote hit| Reuters

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By David Milliken and William Schomberg | LONDON LONDON Britain's free-spending consumers again confounded warnings that June's Brexit vote would cause an immediate slowdown in the country's eco**my, driving robust growth in the final three months of 2016, data showed on Thursday.Gross domestic product rose at a quarterly pace of 0.6 percent between October and December, keeping up the same above-average pace seen in the initial three months after the referendum decision to leave the European Union.A Reuters poll of eco**mists had forecast a slight slowdown to growth of 0.5 percent.Sterling, which lost as much as 20 percent against the dollar last year after the shock vote, hit a six-week high against the dollar and British 10-year government bond yields rose to their highest since mid-December as some investors believed the Bank of England might soon start to move towards an interest rate hike."What the figures today show is that the UK eco**my continues to be resilient and continues to confound the sceptics," finance minister Philip Hammond said. Though most eco**mists expect higher inflation this year to squeeze consumers - and see longer-term damage to trade from Brexit - Hammond said the eco**my's resilience meant Britain could be optimistic about the Brexit talks that lie ahead."Clearly, life goes on, despite the Brexit vote," Scotiabank eco**mist Alan Clarke said.

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