The U.K. economy contracted more than first thought in the third quarter of this year, putting it bottom among the G-7 major advanced nations, revised data showed on Thursday.
Economic output fell by 0.3% in the third quarter, compared to the previous estimate of a 0.2% decline, data by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed.
Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said: "Our revised figures show the economy performed slightly less well over the last year than we previously estimated," with manufacturing "notably weaker."
Household expenditure fell 1.1%, namely tourism, transport, household goods and services, and food and drinks.
Business investment went down 2.5% and inventories fell by 5.2 billion pounds ($6.3 billion), mainly due to reductions for retail and manufacturing industries. On the other hand, government expenditure went up 0.5% and government investment surged 17.3%.
Commenting on the country's growth figure, James Smith, research director at Resolution Foundation, said on Twitter that "all this leaves the U.K. with the weakest growth in the G-7 in Q3 and the only country where the level of GDP remains below its pre-pandemic level."
The figure is worse than Japan’s 0.2% fall in growth, whereas Canada and the U.S. both post rises in GDP, by nearly 0.7%.
France (+0.2%), Germany (+0.4%) and Italy (+0.5%) all expanded in July-September too.
The Bank of England (BoE) previously said the country was "expected to be in recession for a prolonged period and CPI (consumer) inflation would remain elevated at over 10% in the near term."
It predicted that the economy had entered a recession in the third quarter and that the downturn would last until mid-2024.
The bank also forecast GDP being down in 2023 and into the first half of 2024 "as high energy prices and materially tighter financial conditions weigh on spending."
