Britain's economy entered a shallow recession last year, official figures confirmed on Thursday.
Gross domestic product shrank by 0.1% in the third quarter and by 0.3% in the fourth, unchanged from preliminary estimates, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed.
The ONS said the latest GDP estimate for the final quarter of 2023 showed all three sectors of the economy - services, production and construction - experienced falling output. The figures indicated that and a deeper recession was prevented by a rise in government spending.
Britain remains one of the slowest countries to recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the end of last year, its economy was just 1% bigger than in late 2019, with only Germany faring worse among Group of Seven nations.