UK escaped year-end recession

New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the UK narrowly avoided falling into recession at the end of last year. Instead, GDP – which had been widely predicted to fall to 0% – grew by 0.1% from October to December 2022.

In output terms, the services sector grew by 0.1% and the construction sector by 1.3%, while production sector growth was flat.

According to the ONS, the level of real GDP in now estimated to be 0.6% below where it was pre-coronavirus at the same period in 2019. Real households’ disposable income increased by 1.3% after four consecutive quarters of negative growth, it added.