UK recession ‘not as bad as we thought’

New figures from the Office for National Statistics claim to show that the UK recession wasn’t as bad as expected in the three months from July to September.
Although the economy continued to decline, it was by 0.3% compared with the shock 0.4% slide originally indicated. But it was still the sixth successive quarter of contraction.

The ONS said the upward revision of UK output was driven by an improvement in the economically critical services sector. There was also an improvement in the motor vehicle industry as the Government’s car scrappage scheme continued to have an effect.

Manufacturing also showed an improvement in this estimate for the quarter, revised to a decline of 0.1% from a 0.2% slump.