UK economy moves to positive territory in Q4
27 Jan 2010
The UK economy returned to growth in the fourth quarter of 2009 after the deepest recession in decades, but at a far weaker rate than expected.
The economy, measured by gross domestic product (GDP), grew by 0.1 per cent well below the 0.4 per cent expansion expected by analysts, official figures by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showed yesterday.
Excluding output from oil and gas extraction, the economy grew by 0.2 per cent after being flat in the third quarter.
Over the course of 2009 as a whole, GDP fell 3.2 per cent, the biggest annual fall since 1949.
The Bank of England may now be forced to pump billions of pounds more into the economy to ensure that the country does not slip back into recession.
The UK is the last major economy to emerge from recession, after Germany, France, the US, Japan and Italy all started to grow again last year (See: Eurozone emerges from recession, UK still in coma).