Ahead of today's UK GDP release..........>

UK PREVIEW: Ahead of today's UK GDP release (0830GMT), analysts at Citi say cold

weather and international trade weakness are likely to have weighed on output

growth. Thus risks are tilted to the downside vs the upside. Construction looks

set to be the weakest GDP component.

- Danske Bank estimate GDP growth was 0.25%, implying an annual growth rate of

1.4% y/y (don't be surprised if it is only 1.3%), which is among the lowest in

the advanced economies.

- Nomura forecast 0.3% q-o-q GDP growth in the initial Q1 print. As usual, there

is no detail on the expenditure components in the first estimate - the numbers

are constructed primarily from the output side of the accounts. Because the

initial print is made up of only 40% of the information used for the final

estimate of GDP, it can be subject to sizeable future revisions.

- RBC forecast 0.3% q/q for Q1 GDP, but it is not impossible that it slips to

0.2% q/q with weather disruptions.