British economic growth data will be high on the agenda next week for investors on the London stock market which is looking to build on its highest closing levels for 21 months. London's benchmark FTSE 100 index rose 0.93 percent over the past five days to end the week at 5,703.02 points on Friday.
The FTSE had on Thursday closed at its highest level since June 2008, at 5,727.65 points following the release of robust British retail sales data.
Next Tuesday, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes its third and final estimate for British GDP during the fourth quarter of 2009. The last estimate published in February showed that Britain emerged from a record recession in unexpectedly strong shape during the final three months of last year.
Gross domestic product (GDP) - the value of all the goods and services produced in the economy - grew by 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter, the ONS had said in its second estimate.
That was stronger than an initial estimate of 0.1-percent expansion.
Britain's economy is meanwhile forecast to grow by a weaker-than-expected 3.0-3.5 percent in 2011, finance minister Alistair Darling said on Wednesday in a pre-election budget statement. The latest official prediction was a slight downgrade from the previous forecast of 3.25-3.75 percent that was given in December.
The British government vowed to hike taxes on the rich to help the poor hit by the global downturn and cut borrowing targets in a budget unveiled weeks before a knife-edge election.
Finance minister Alistair Darling, unveiling what could be his last budget ahead of a general election expected on May 6, also trimmed the Labour government's latest annual borrowing target to 167 billion pounds.
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