UK officially out of recession

The UK has managed to emerge from recession after 18 months of economic decline, according to the first of three sets of figures to be released by the Office of National Statistics.

According to the BBC, the British economy grew by 0.1 per cent and unemployment fell for the first time in a year and a half. However the economy still declined by 4.8 per cent overall last year, and the growth fell below the predicted 0.4 per cent.

 “The Q4 GDP figures are a major blow to hopes that the UK economy had emerged decisively from recession in Q4,” Capital Economics analyst Jonathan Loynes told BBC News.

“No doubt some commentators will claim that the figures are under-estimating the true strength of the recovery and will be revised up in time. That is certainly possible. But it won’t change the big picture of an economy still operating way below both its pre-recession and trend levels of output."