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LONDON, Dec. 22-- Brexit uncertainties failed to seriously derail British economic growth, with GDP increasing 0.4 percent in the third quarter (Q3), an increase from the 0.3 percent of the previous quarter, figures showed Friday. "It's a middle of the road performance, really. You would have hoped Britain could have done a lot better, but it could have been a whole lot worse," economist Dr. Howard Archer told Xinhua. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) released the final revised figures for Q3 on Friday, with some significant revisions upwards for the data compared with earlier versions. Economic growth was "better than was expected at the beginning of the year, and not catastrophic considering some of the expectations that Brexit would weigh down heavily on growth," said Archer, chief economic adviser to EY Item, a London-based financial data firm. Brexit's effect has been principally felt in the domestic British economy with sharply-higher inflation, with Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation at 3.1 percent in November (the latest figures). This is a steep rise from the 0.5 percent inflation at the time of the Brexit referendum in June 2016, and was prompted by a sharp and immediate fall in sterling from 1.48 U.S. dollars to 1.22 U.S. dollars. This increased the price of imports, raw materials, and supply chain costs. Consumers have been driving economic growth, but higher inflation has outstripped the healthy growth in wages. | 
