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| UK economy shrank more than thought, say official figures | UK economy shrank more than thought, say official figures |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| The UK economy shrank by 0.4% in the final three months of last year, compared with previous estimates of a fall of 0.3%, official figures show. | The UK economy shrank by 0.4% in the final three months of last year, compared with previous estimates of a fall of 0.3%, official figures show. |
| The estimate for the first quarter of this year was unchanged, showing the economy shrank by 0.3% in that period. | The estimate for the first quarter of this year was unchanged, showing the economy shrank by 0.3% in that period. |
| href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/naa2/quarterly-national-accounts/q1-2012/stb--quarterly-national-accounts-q1-2012.html" >The estimate for the UK's gross domestic product from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) was the third revision to the data. | |
| They show the UK's recession has been deeper than previously thought. | They show the UK's recession has been deeper than previously thought. |
| A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction. | |
| Construction activity fell by 4.9%, its sharpest fall since the first quarter of 2009. | |
| The figures showed that household spending was constrained, with expenditure falling by 0.1% compared with a previous estimate of 0.1% growth. | |
| That was driven by lower spending on financial services, which was offset to some extent by an increase in spending on food and drink and leisure. | |
| The weak picture of the economy was further underlined by figures also released on Thursday showing government spending grew at its fastest rate in nearly seven years between January and March. | |
| Vicky Redwood, chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said the figures boded ill for the rest of the year, particularly because of the effect of the Queen's Jubilee holiday: "Given the negative impact of June's extra bank holiday, GDP is likely to have contracted again in the second quarter." |