UK economy avoids winter recession with meagre 0.1% growth

London: Britain’s economy grew 0.1 per cent in the first quarter of this year, unrevised from an initial estimate published last month, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed on Friday.

The ONS said Britain’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of this year was 0.5 per cent smaller than it was before in the final quarter of 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, also in line with a previous estimate.

Previous monthly GDP data has shown that Britain’s economy in April was slightly larger than in February 2020.

Britain’s economic recovery since the Covid-19 pandemic has been much slower than almost every other big advanced economy, though Germany has struggled too and its economy in the first quarter was 0.5 per cent smaller than before the pandemic.

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The Bank of England forecast last month that Britain’s economy would grow just 0.25 per cent this year.