Britain's economy shrank 0.5% in the three months from July to September from the previous quarter, marking the first contraction since 1992 and placing it close to recession, official data show today.
The economy had already shown flat performance in the second quarter with zero growth. However, Britain is not officially in recession unless it reports two quarters running of negative economic growth, or contraction.
Gross domestic product (GDP) grew by just 0.3% during the third quarter compared with the July-September period in 2007, the Office for National Statistics added in a statement.
The data was worse than market expectations for a quarterly contraction of 0.2% and annual expansion of 0.5%.
