The United Kingdom slipped into a technical recession in the second half of last year after its economy registered two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth, official figures have shown. derailing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s pledge to generate economic growth.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement on Thursday that Britain’s gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 0.3 percent in the last three months of 2023, after contracting 0.1 percent in the third quarter.
A technical recession is commonly defined as back-to-back quarters of contracting GDP.
Sterling weakened moderately against the United States dollar and the euro shortly after the GDP data release.
The ONS said the fall in GDP in the fourth quarter of 2023 was the biggest since the first three months of 2021. A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to a smaller 0.1 percent fall in the October-to-December period.
Economic output dropped by 0.1 percent in monthly terms in December, after 0.2 percent growth in November, the ONS said. The Reuters poll had pointed to a 0.2 percent fall in December.
Britain’s economy has been stagnating for nearly two years. The Bank of England has said it expects it to pick up slightly in 2024, but slow growth this year would still represent a difficult backdrop for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s attempts to woo voters ahead of a national election expected later in 2024.
