LONDON: Britain’s economic output grew by an as expected 0.2% in January, after entering a shallow recession in the second half of 2023, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed on Wednesday.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.2% month-on-month expansion of gross domestic product for January.

Britain’s economy has been very sluggish since its initial recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, beset by a surge in the cost of energy imports when Russia invaded Ukraine and, more recently, by high Bank of England interest rates.

UK economy falls into recession

GDP shrank by 0.3% in the final quarter of 2023 and 0.1% in the quarter before - meeting the technical definition of recession widely used in Europe.

Wednesday’s data showed that GDP in January was 0.3% lower than a year earlier, in line with economists’ forecasts.