The Office for National Statistics said that the UK economy grew even faster than initially thought in the second quarter of this year: it revised its GDP growth figure up from 1.1% to 1.2%. That’s the fastest growth rate for almost a decade. Given the slew of positive results from the City this week, and the continued surge in high street spending, we could almost be excused for feeling rather more cheerful about our economic prospects today. The big factor behind the upward adjustment was the construction sector, which the ONS now reckons grew by a whopping 8.5%, and Service industries were up 0.7% - Most Importantly for the Licensing Industry retail spending was up, its biggest jump for a couple of years. The latest CBI Distributives Trade Survey actually paints a fairly positive picture of the high street: over half of the retailers surveyed reported a rise in sales during the first two weeks of August, citing the better weather and summer promotions. On balance, shopkeepers are a lot more positive about their prospects for the next three months now – although they also warned that prices were on the rise, which doesn’t bode well for inflation and interest rate rises.