The British economy narrowly avoids recession

The UK narrowly avoided falling into recession at the end of last year, with zero growth in the fourth quarter. This was evident in the figures released by the British Statistics Office on Friday.

The British economy contracted by 0.2 percent in the third quarter, but the initial estimate showed zero growth in the fourth quarter. So the British have just avoided a recession, because a recession occurs when the economy contracts for two consecutive quarters.

“The UK economy ended 2022 on a slightly positive note, narrowly avoiding a technical recession,” said Yael Selvin, chief economist at KPMG in the UK. But “expectations remain that the economy will enter a moderate but persistent recession this year.”

In December alone, GDP contracted by 0.5% on a monthly basis. For the chief economist, this points to the “continuing fragility of the UK economy”.

Over the whole of 2022, the UK economy grew by 4 percent. That was lower than in 2021, when growth of 7.6% was achieved as the country recovered from coronavirus lockdowns. The UK is also the only economy in the G7, the group of richest countries, that has not yet returned to pre-coronavirus levels.