UK avoids recession with 0.2 per cent growth
The UK economy grew 0.2 per cent in the second quarter of this year as it bucked initial estimates of a 0.1 per cent contraction in the the three months to June, official figures showed today
The revised figures from the Office for National Statistics today imply the UK is not currently in a recession, as predicted by the Bank of England earlier this month.
“These improved figures show the economy grew in the second quarter, revised up from a small fall,” ONS Chief Economist Grant Fitzner said.
“They also show that while household savings fell back in the most recent quarter, households saved more than we previously estimated during and after the pandemic.”
The economy is still languishing below pre-pandemic levels however, as the figures showed real gross domestic product was still 0.2 per cent below the levels in the final quarter of 2019.
The level of real GDP in the three months to June is now estimated to be 0.2 per cent below in the final quarter of 2019, downwardly revised from previous estimates of 0.6 per cent above, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
Economists at the ONS said the figures showed the economy was “slightly smaller” than their previous estimate and below its level when the pandemic struck.
“The economy shrank more than we first estimated during the early months of the pandemic but rebounded more strongly in the latter half of 2021,” Fitzner said.