THE UK's latest Gross Domestic Product figures may be a threat to Swin-don's economy, according to Swindon Chamber of Commerce.

Dennis Grant, chief executive of Swindon Chamber, said: "The latest figures are sadly totally predictable. They reinforce the chamber's assessment that the UK economy, and by consequence that of Swindon, is weak and business is facing serious dangers."

"With few signs that inflation is accelerating in spite of the weaker pound, and growing signs that the housing market is easing, we expect the Monetary Policy Committee to consider an early interest rate reduction to counter mounting global and domestic threats."

GDP quarterly growth was confirmed at 0.2 per cent, well below the expected trend. At the same time, growth in the service sector, a dominant sector in the Swindon economy slowed down 0.3 per cent.

Despite this, there is evidence that Swindon and the North Wiltshire area has been able to absorb job losses and keep unemploy-ment surprisingly low.

According to an article in the Financial Times yesterday, the loss of some 500 manufacturing jobs at the Malmesbury plant of Dyson last year looked as if it would represent the beginning of a hi-tech exodus from the UK.

Also recent job losses at Motorola, Lucent and Intel as well as the closure of EMI's compact disc factory have added to unemploy-ment.

But Swindon has managed to absorb the job losses despite being heavily dependent on foreign investment.

Mr Grant fears that the loss of recent manufacturing jobs set a worrying precedent, but added: "Swindon certainly seems to be bucking the national trends, there is a feeling of prosperity in the town compared to other towns.

"Dyson sent shivers through the community because if it makes sense for Dyson to move, then why not Honda too? Dyson was a bigger blow because it was a rare home-grown start-up."

"We have been attracting inward investment for years, but the problem is that we have grown dependant on big companies rather than generating our own small companies.

"Swindon is fortunate to have a very fluid workforce.

"If you take, Anchor butter as an example, they were people trained to produce butter and cream yet many have found new jobs elsewhere, and there are no other major dairy product companies near-by."