good news

Good news on the uk recession

 Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. economy emerged from the worst recession on record in the fourth quarter, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research said.

Gross domestic product grew 0.3 percent after shrinking 0.2 percent in the third quarter, the institute, whose clients include the Bank of England and the Treasury, said in an e- mailed statement today in London. The economy shrank 4.8 percent in 2009, more than any year of the Great Depression and the most since 1921, the report said.

Bank of England policy maker Andrew Sentance told the Guardian newspaper in an interview published today that the early months of recovery may “feel fragile and uncertain.” Government data today showed U.K. manufacturing unexpectedly stalled for a second month in November, suggesting the economy is struggling to shake off the slump.

“The broader picture of the depression is that output fell sharply for 12 months until March and has not changed very much since then, although evidence of a recovery is starting to emerge,” the institute said.

The U.K. has lost 6 percent of GDP since the first quarter of 2008, making the recession the deepest since annual records began in 1955.

Niesr says its projections for calendar quarters have a standard error of 0.1 to 0.2 percentage point when compared with the first estimate produced by the Office for National Statistics. The ONS will publish its first estimate for the fourth quarter on Jan. 26.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Ryan in London at jryan13@bloomberg.net