The country has finally come out of recession, official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have shown.

After six quarters – 18 months – in a row, the economy has finally stopped shrinking, making Britain the last major economy in the world to exit recession and start growing again.

According to the figures, the economy grew by 0.1% in the final quarter of 2009. Even so, the economy at the end of 2009 was still 3.2% smaller than it had been a year before – and a full 6% smaller than it was before the recession started.

Three months ago, analysts expected the ONS figures to show that the country had exited recession at the end of the third quarter of 2009, but these hopes were dashed when the ONS reported a contraction of 0.2%. Continue reading…

According to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the economy shrank by 0.4% in the third quarter of 2009, dashing hopes that Britain had come out of recession, the Telegraph reports.

The figures show that the economy has now contracted for six straight quarters – the longest run since records began in 1955.

Meanwhile, Thursday`s retail sales figures showed that consumers were focusing on cutting back their debts and adding to their savings, rather than spending.

James Shugg, an economist at Westpac, said: “There will be retrenchment as households pay down debt.” He went on to say that “the economy still needs quite a lot of support”. Continue reading…