Economy shrinks

The economy is back to where we thought it was back at the end of January.

According to quarterly national accounts produced by the Office for National Statistics, the economy, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), shrank by 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2010. This was the same figure as the preliminary estimate in January before it was increased to a fall of 0.6% in February.

The output of the production industries increased by 0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2010 and for the year as a whole increased by 2.0% on 2009.

Manufacturing output rose by 1.1% in the fourth quarter of 2010 and was 3.6% higher than the previous year.

The government number crunchers said that without the disruption caused by snow the economy was flat in the final quarter.

Despite the final quarter contraction, the economy grew by 1.5% last year.

www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/qna0311.pdf