Economy was in better shape at end of year

The economy grew faster than thought at the end of 2009, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.

The economy, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), grew by 0.4% on the previous quarter — revised upwards from the 0.3% growth figure previously published.

GDP was down, however, by 3.1% on the same quarter 2008.

And the 4.9% decline for the calendar year 2009 on the year before, although better than previously thought, was the largest fall on record. In 2008 there was a rise of 0.5%.

The output of the production industries increased by 0.4% in the fourth quarter of 2009 but is down 5.9% compared with the same quarter of 2008.

For the calendar year 2009, output of the production industries declined by 10.2% compared with a fall of 3.1% in 2008.

Manufacturing output rose by 0.8% in the final quarter of 2009 compared with a fall of 0.3% in the previous quarter. Manufacturing output was down 4.9% on the same quarter 2008.

For the calendar year 2009, manufacturing outputdeclined by 10.5%.

Services output rose by 0.5%, in comparison with a fall of 0.2% in the previous quarter. Services output is down 2.2% compared with the same quarter of 2008.

For the calendar year 2009, services output fell by 3.5% compared with a rise of 1.4% in the previous year.

www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/qna0310.pdf