Britain is last major nation in recession
Britain remains stuck in a record recession, official data show today, but economists forecast a return to growth before the end of the year and ahead of a general election.
The economy shrank by 0.3% in the third quarter, compared with output in the previous three months, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement. This was an improvement on an initial estimate given last month that said the economy had contracted by 0.4% between July and September.
The euro zone, France, Germany, Japan and the US have all returned to growth following the worst global economic downturn since the 1930s.
The UK economy has now contracted for six quarters in a row, Britain's longest recession since records began in 1955.
'GDP contracted by 0.3% in the third quarter of 2009,' the ONS said today. 'This has been revised from a fall of 0.4% in the preliminary estimate of GDP, due to upward revisions to services. GDP is 5.1% lower than the third quarter of 2008,' it added.
The quarter-on-quarter and annual figures for the July to September months were both in line with analysts' consensus forecasts.
Markets were left shocked last month when an initial ONS estimate said Britain's economy had shrunk by 0.4% in the third quarter, because expectations had been for a return to growth. The technical definition of a recession is two or more quarters of contraction in a row.
Although the US has officially pulled out of recession, revised data showed yesterday that the US economy grew at an annual pace of 2.8% in the third quarter. That was a sharp downwards revision from the previous estimate of 3.5%.
