- Prior -0.1%
- GDP -0.2% vs +0.1% y/y expected
- Prior +0.3%
That’s a worse reading than expected and it reaffirms a technical recession in the UK in the second half of last year. As a whole in 2023, UK GDP is estimated to have increased by just 0.1%. Excluding the Covid pandemic, this was the weakest annual change in GDP since 2009.
This calls into question the supposed resilience towards the end of Q4 and might add some pressure to the BOE in cutting rates sooner, especially if the trend carries over to this year.