For the first time since the 1970s Britain is facing the reality of double-dip recession. According figures supplied by London’s Office for National Statistics, the gross domestic product shrunk by 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2012 after contracting by 0.3 percent in the last quarter of 2011. The technical definition of recession is when there are two straight quarters of shrinking economy.
The poor showing is blamed on the poorly performing British construction industry.
“This isn’t supportive of the fiscal consolidation program, so the government is likely to be concerned about that,” said Philip Rush, an economist at Nomura International in London. “The data were bad, and that supports the view that the Bank of England will do a final 25 billion pounds of quantitative easing in May.”
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