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New figures due to show health of UK's economy - BBC News New figures due to show health of UK's economy - BBC News
(32 minutes later)
Figures released in February by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed the UK fell into a recession in the second half of 2023. Anthony Reuben
GDP fell by 0.3% in the last three months of 2023 - which was a sharper fall than economists were expecting. BBC Verify
This gave us two consecutive falls in GDP after a decrease of 0.1% in the three months before - between July and September 2023.
As a result the UK entered what is defined as “a technical recession”. On 4 January 2023, the prime minister set out his five priorities.
Industry group the Trades Union Congress (TUC) said February’s news suggested the UK was in “dire straits”, while the anti-poverty charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation raised concerns for those already struggling with bills and food prices. Recently we examined Rishi Sunak’s progress – in particular the one on “growing the economy".
At the time, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said: "The big picture is that, actually, since then the economy has been more resilient, unemployment has stayed low, real wages have been rising now for six months. The government has never publicly said what measure should be used to assess if it had met the prime minister's pledge to "grow the economy", despite repeated requests.
"And if we stick to our guns now, we can see light at the end of the tunnel." In some private briefings to journalists, sources said it would be if the economy was bigger in the three-month period of October to December 2023 than in the previous quarter (July-September).
You can read more here about the UK economy falling into recession That was not achieved in February as figures showed the economy shrank 0.3% in the last three months of 2023 - sending it into recession.
That pledge to grow the economy was made more difficult by the government's promise to halve inflation. The Bank of England put up interest rates 14 times to stop prices rising so quickly. However, this also reduced spending, and slowed economic growth.
You can read more here about the progress Rishi Sunak has made on his five promises
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