Oh BAD News Limey!

[Mega]

UK heads for triple dip as GDP contracts 0.3pc

UK GDP contracted by a bigger-than-expected 0.3pc in the last three months of 2012, bringing the economy closer to a triple dip recession.

The news will be a blow for George Osborne, who yesterday defended hits austerity programme against criticism from the IMF. Photo: EDDIE MULHOLLAND









9:34AM GMT 25 Jan 2013
52 Comments


The Office for National Statistics said the fall was down to lower output from the North Sea and manufacturers.


The news will be a blow for Britain's Conservative-led government, which only a day earlier defended its austerity programme against criticism from the International Monetary Fund's chief economist.


The economy is now 3.3PC smaller than its peak in the first quarter in 2008, recovering only about half the output lost during the financial crisis - a worse performance than other major economies.


Britain's economy also suffered a mild recession from late 2011 to mid 2012.

"It confirms what we already knew - that Britain, like many European countries, still faces a very difficult economic situation," the Treasury said in a statement.

Related Articles

• GDP fall raises triple-dip fears - reaction
  25 Jan 2013
• IMF cuts Britain's growth forecast to 1pc
  23 Jan 2013
• 'Junk rhetoric of austerity', says Boris
  24 Jan 2013
• Osborne rejects IMF calls to slow down spending cuts
  24 Jan 2013
• George Osborne rejects IMF call for Plan B
  24 Jan 2013
• Mortgages cheapest since height of crisis
  19 Jan 2013

"While the economy is healing, it is a difficult road."

The biggest driver for the fall in GDP was a 10.2pc quarterly drop in mining and quarrying output, the biggest since records began in 1997, driven by disruption to North Sea oil and gas fields.

This knocked 0.18pc off of GDP, while falls in factory output and in the 'government and other services' category, where the London Olympics had boosted sports and recreation services in the third quarter.

At the start of 2013 one-off factors, such as January's snow, may push the economy into an unprecedented triple-dip recession, with major retailer John Lewis already warning on Friday that snow had hit sales growth.
Sir Mervyn King, the Bank of England Governnor, expects no more than a "gentle recovery" this year, while this week the International Monetary Fund cut its 2013 forecast for British economic growth to 1pc from 1.1pc predicted in October.

However, even such lacklustre growth could be derailed, as some analysts and business groups warn, by a hit to firms' and consumers' confidence from talk of a triple-dip recession.
That will add to pressure on the Coalition rto loosen its austerity drive and bolster the economy.

Ho Ho Ho
Mega

[Mega]

Re: Oh BAD News Limey!

Up date............its WORST figs since 1830 !!!!!!!!!!
Britain is experiencing 'worse slump than during Great Depression'

Britain's recent economic performance is the worst since records began in the pre-Victorian era, experts said today, apart from the two immediate post-war slumps.



560
315
TelegraphPlayer_9826294












By Rowena Mason, Political Correspondent

2:01PM GMT 25 Jan 2013

605 Comments


Ministers today admitted Britain is facing "very, very grave difficulties" after figures showed the economy did not grow at all in 2012.

Both George Osborne, the Chancellor, and Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said they do not underestimate the scale of the challenge but insisted the Goverment is on a "path of repairing our public finances".

Despite their optimism, City analysts warned that the economy is still "in crisis", more than four years after the financial crash of autumn 2008.

Economists from the Royal Bank of Scotland said the last four years have produced the worst economic performance in a non post-war period since records started being collected in the 1830s.





Related Articles

• GDP figures: UK economy shrinks - as it happened
  25 Jan 2013
• Dave, George and Boris 'out for pizza' night before GDP woe
  25 Jan 2013
• UK heads for triple dip as GDP shrinks 0.3pc
  25 Jan 2013
• Boris: I can't promise I would vote yes to EU
  24 Jan 2013
• Davos sketch: Cameron, rap god
  24 Jan 2013
• Osborne rejects IMF calls to slow down spending cuts
  24 Jan 2013

Stephen Boyle, head of group economics at the Royal Bank of Scotland, said the last time the economy was so bad was immediately after World War One and World War Two, when GDP fell in double digits.

"Those aside, 2008-12 fall was bigger than any since before Victoria ascended the throne," he said.
"It's the worst economic performance since at least 1830, outside of post-war demobilisations," he told The Daily Telegraph. "It's worse than the 1920s, it's worse than the Great Depression."

He said the economy has been "heading this way for a long time" because of the scale of the problems that came to a head in the 2008 financial crash.

"When you get a downturn that's rooted in very high levels of indebtedness and stress in the financial system, history tells us that you get recessions that are much deeper and longer, and recoveries that are much weaker," he said.



The top economist at RBS, which is mostly owned by the Government, said it is difficult to recover when much of the world is facing similar problems.

"It's the scale of what happened in 2008 but also the build-up to that," he said. "Compared with other recessions [like in the 1980s and 1990s], this is happening all over the world. There's not a quick and easy way to export your way out of this."
However, Mr Boyle said there are "limited options" for the Chancellor to "let up on austerity".

"The Bank of England has made it clear that it would expect interest rates to rise if the Government let off on austerity," he said.

"There is an opportuninty for very modest fiscal expansion - more spending or tax cuts - but the Government has to balance that against what might happen to interests."

Official figures released at 9.30am showed the UK economy did not grow at all last year, because of the poor results for the last three months of 2012.

Experts said the economy shrank in the final quarter as Britain's manufacturers suffered their worst year since the financial crisis.

Tony Dolphin, chief economist at the IPPR, said there would not necessarily be a triple-dip recession but the economy remains in crisis.

"We will not know for sure whether the economy is back in recession for another three months," he said. "And even then, history suggests there is always a chance that the GDP figures will be revised and that any recession will be subsequently eradicated from the record.

"What we do know, however, is that the economy is facing a triple crisis: stagnation, debt and imbalance."

[Mega]

Re: Oh BAD News Limey!

Hey Limey, want a clue how you going to do from here?

Mega