Official data released on Thursday had shown that Britain has entered recession after recording two successive quarters of negative economic growth in the second half of last year.
Britain sank into recession at the end of last year on high inflation and a cost-of-living crisis, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak before this year’s election.
Gross domestic product shrank 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2023 after contracting 0.1% in the prior three months, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
That places the economy in recession, which is defined as two successive quarters of falling GDP.
Year-over-year, the economy shrank by 0.2% after growing by 0.2% in Q2. Economists expected the economy to grow by 0.1% year-on-year.
According to the Office for National Statistics,
- Services (-0.2%), production (-1.0%), and construction (-1.3%) output impacted the UK economy in Q4.
- The services sector accounts for over 70% of the UK economy. In Q3, service sector output also shrank by 0.2%.
- In 2023, the UK economy grew by 0.1% after expanding by 4.3% in 2022. Growth in 2022 was the weakest since the 2009 global financial crisis, excluding the period impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Service sector and construction output grew by 0.3% and 2.0%, respectively, in 2023. However, production output fell by 0.3%.
