I really think you should read the briefings more carefully
Riddlez you're selectively quoting quarters rather than looking at 2018 as a whole, then putting forward irrelevant projections for 2019/2020 which have already been proven wrong. For example that Guardian article is based on EU projections that have already been made to look ridiculous given recent economic news out of France and especially Germany. This is the published 2018 data thus far which show the UK is the fastest growing major EU economy:
Q1-UK 0.1%, GER 0.4%, FRA 0.2%, ITA 0.3%
Q2-UK 0.4%, GER 0.5%, FRA 0.2%, ITA 0.2%
Q3-UK 0.6%, GER -0.2%, FRA 0.3%, ITA -0.1%
Q4 is yet to be published but based on PMI data, business confidence surveys (etc) they all point to a second consecutive quarter of German economic contraction, which is the technical definition of a recession.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-why-europes-biggest-economy-is-in-danger-of-entering-a-technical-recession-2019-01-14And Pete, that Goldman document is itself a forecast which shouldn't be taken as factual economic data. For example here's what they forecasted for Germany:
At -0.2%qoq, Q3 GDP growth was significantly weaker than we expected (before Euro area Q3 GDP had been published)...While growth has decelerated from last year’s 2.5%yoy pace, these two factors exaggerate the weakness in Q3 and point to a Q4 rebound
They acknowledged they got it wrong for Q3, made up some excuses as to why that was the case and then made a Q4 prediction that's now totally wrong too. You gonna trust their 2019 and 2020 predictions? Lol.