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mpc: 16 Recent indicators appeared consistent with some rebalancing of growth away from consumption towards investment and exports. Caution needed to be applied, however, in interpreting the latest figures since there were often sizeable revisions to the first estimates of the GDP expenditure breakdown. Over the period since 1993, the average absolute revision to the first estimate of quarterly consumption growth had been around 0.3 percentage points. It was possible that the slowdown of consumption growth between Q4 and Q1 might ultimately be revised to show slightly weaker spending in Q4 and stronger consumption in Q1. However, evidence from surveys and from the Bank's regional Agents had been broadly consistent with the ONS's reported profile of strong household spending growth in Q4 followed by a slowdown in Q1. There had also been anecdotal evidence from retailers of selective price discounting ahead of Christmas and relatively low stocks (and therefore less price discounting than usual) in the post-Christmas period. If this change in the seasonal pattern of discounting were the explanation, the slowdown in consumption growth in Q1 might prove to be temporary; it would then be sensible to look through the quarterly volatility by averaging the consumption growth rates in Q4 and Q1 to give a picture of underlying quarterly consumption growth of around 0.5%.