The recession that the UK entered last year was a little shallower than first thought, revised new figures from the Office for National Statistics have shown.
The ONS said that the economy shrank by 0.1 percent in the third quarter and 0.3 percent in the fourth.
That was unrevised from the statisticians’ previous estimates.
However small revisions not visible in the headline figures, which are rounded to one decimal place, meant that the cumulative decline in the two quarters was 0.4 percent, rather than a previously estimated 0.5 percent.
Responding to Office for National Statistics gross domestic product (GDP) quarterly national accounts, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said: “Last year was tough as interest rates had to rise to bring down inflation, but we can see our plan is working.
“Inflation has fallen decisively from over 11 percent to 3.4 percent, the economy grew in January and real wages have increased for eight months in a row.
“Our cuts to National Insurance will boost growth by rewarding work and putting over £900 a year back into the average earner’s pocket.”
Liz McKeown, director of economics statistics at ONS, said: „Our updated set of GDP figures shows quarterly growth unrevised across 2023, with a little growth in the first quarter and small contractions in the latter half of the year.“
However, she noted: „New figures on households show that savings remained high, with an increase in income in the last quarter of the year.“
Commenting on today’s Balance of Payments figures, Ms McKeown said: „Our underlying balance of payments deficit with the rest of the world widened at the end of 2023, partly because the trade picture worsened slightly.“
The underlying current account deficit expanded to £26.3billion (3.9 percent of GDP) in Quarter 4 2023.
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