UK annual house price growth falls to lowest since Sept 2013 - Nationwide

LONDON, March 2 (Reuters) - British house prices rose by the smallest annual amount since September 2013 in February, after the first monthly drop in house prices in five months, figures from mortgage lender Nationwide showed on Monday.

Nationwide said that the annual rate of house price increase dropped to 5.7 percent last month from 6.8 percent in January, a sharper slowdown than economists had expected.

Prices in February alone dropped by 0.1 percent, the first fall in five months, after a 0.3 percent rise in January. (Reporting by David Milliken)