UK crawls further out of recession with GDP growth of 0.2%

The UK’s recovery from recession was at a snail’s pace in the first quarter of 2010, with GDP growing by an estimated 0.2%, or just half analysts’ expectations of 0.4%.

According to the Office for National Statistics, progress was also half that made in the final quarter of 2009, when output increased by 0.4% once an earlier estimate of 0.1% had been corrected.

However, UK plc struggled with severe winter weather during the first three months of the year, possibly adversely affecting growth in retail and industrial sectors in particular.

More positively, the financial and business services sector picked up with GDP growth increasing by 0.6%, following a rise of 0.4% in the previous three months.

The miserable level of growth recorded in the economy during the first three months of this year will come as a blow to Labour as the General Election campaign gathers pace and while a positive revision of the figure is possible, it is not to be expected this side of polling day.

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