British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt visit Accrington Market Hall with local MP Sara Britcliffe, in Accrington, Britain (Image: Reuters)
The UK economy avoided recession, registered 0.1% growth in Q4 2022, beating earlier estimates, boosted by telecoms, construction, manufacturing and energy bill support
The UK economy registered a marginal growth of 0.1% in the last three months of 2022, avoiding falling into a recession and performing better than previous estimate, the BBC said in a report citing Office for National Statistics data.
The Office for National Statistics earlier said the economy did not grow in the last three months of 2022 but telecommunications, construction and manufacturing sectors performed better than initially expected.
Today’s figures show there’s underlying resilience in the UK economy.However, families are still facing real pressure.
We have stepped up with immediate relief worth an average of £3,300 per household, including paying half of people’s energy bills – funded by windfall taxes. https://t.co/M18bVdngIM
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) March 31, 2023
It also pointed out that the government’s energy bill support scheme helped households tide over the economic challenges.
It should also be noted that the UK economy took a blow due to the policies implemented by former UK PM Liz Truss and her chancellor to the exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng.
Truss was removed from the position of the Prime Minister and Conservative Party chief and replaced by UK PM Rishi Sunak. Jeremy Hunt had earlier replaced Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor to the exchequer, a position he retained after Sunak became Prime Minister.
The report also said that the services sector was the main driver of the economy in the UK due to travel agents and the drugs industry drove manufacturing growth.
“Today’s figures show there’s underlying resilience in the UK economy. However, families are still facing real pressure. We have stepped up with immediate relief worth an average of £3,300 per household, including paying half of people’s energy bills – funded by windfall taxes,” Jeremy Hunt said in a tweet.
The report by the BBC said recession is usually defined as when the economy contracts for two three-month periods in a row and pointed to the growth at the end of 2022 to show that the UK avoided falling into it.
The Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey last week, according to the BBC, said that he is hopeful regarding the economy and it was no longer headed towards “an immediate recession”. The central bank increased interest rates to 4.25% from 4% recently in an attempt to arrest the pace of rising costs.
The BBC report said inflation is close to its highest level for 40 years and hit 10.4% in February.
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