Revised figures confirm UK ended 2023 in recession

There’s no change to
the headline numbers from the end of last year, confirming that the UK was in a mild recession.

In fact, the economy is a tiny bit smaller than it was at the beginning of 2021.

While more timely data
suggests that recession should already be over in the current quarter between January and March, the
overall picture is of zero growth for a couple of years.

It is difficult to
square this with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s promise last year to “grow the economy”.

The chancellor pins the blame on rising interest rates, but the bulk of those increases had already occurred.

When the PM last week promised a “bounceback”, he was specifically talking about 2024. It is not evident in the
2023 numbers.

The prime minister and the chancellor will be dearly awaiting a series of rate
cuts from the Bank of England which could, possibly, come as soon as May – though don’t bet on that.