“Stuck in the mud: The British economy is struggling to get out of the mire” reports:
“BRITAIN’S long-awaited exit from recession has moved from thwarted prediction to firm fact. But the welcome news came with a painful sting. The economy barely crawled forward, expanding by just 0.1% between the third and the fourth quarters of 2009, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Tuesday January 26th. This was much feebler than the median forecast among City economists for an increase of 0.4%.
“The recession lasted a year and a half and was both the longest and deepest since the mid-1940s (when national output fell in the aftermath of the second world war). Indeed the slump of 4.8% in GDP last year was the steepest since 1931, when national output fell by 5.1%.
WATCHDOG: “..Exit from recession…” predicated on a single quarter hypothetical improvement of 1/10th of 1% is but wishful thinking. The figure isn’t even statistically meaningful and, as is acknowledged elsewhere in the article, subject to revision.
It only signifies that for three months the economy stopped plummeting. But there is no way of knowing at this point whether it will go up, stay the same, or resume the drop. Circumstances are similar here in the USA.
