UK finally pulls out of recession
27th January 2010
Official figures that were released on Tuesday have shown that the UK has finally exited recession, following in the footsteps of other major economies. Whilst the news will be welcomed by the nation officials have warned that growth was minimal and this means that the good news could quickly come to an end.
The data showed that the economy had indeed grown over the last quarter of 2009. However, the growth in the economy was much weaker than had been expected, with a paltry growth level of just 0.1 percent. Prior to this the economy had been in negative growth for six consecutive quarters, making the longest and deepest recession seen since records began.
There had been expectations that the UK would exit recession in the third quarter of last year, but shock figures that were released late last year revealed that in fact the UK was lagging behind other major economies and had remained in recession at that time. These latest figures, which have finally confirmed Britain's emergence from the recession, were released by the Office for National Statistics.
A number of signs of economic recovery have been seen over recent months, from falling unemployment levels to increased property sales levels and better than expected profits for High Street retailers over the festive season. Whilst the recovery was slow the UK has at last joined other major economies including Japan, the United States, France, and Germany in escaping the grip of the recession.
However, some officials are now warning people to err on the side of caution, stating that the minimal growth level that has finally dragged the nation out of recession could be too insignificant to result in sustainability, and this could result in a double dip recession where the economy is plunged back into recession after just about managing to claw itself out.
One economist said that Britain had just about crossed the line in coming out of recession, adding that the growth figures had been well below the expectations of analysts. Another economist added that growth and GDP figures were a blow for anyone that had hoped that the UK would be able to completely free itself from the grip of this latest recession.
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