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| Decline of the UK economy worsens | Decline of the UK economy worsens |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| The UK economy shrank 1.9% in the first three months of 2009, according to gross domestic product (GDP) data from the Office for National Statistics. | The UK economy shrank 1.9% in the first three months of 2009, according to gross domestic product (GDP) data from the Office for National Statistics. |
| The figure was much worse than the expected level of about 1.5% and followed the contraction of 1.6% in the previous three month period. | The figure was much worse than the expected level of about 1.5% and followed the contraction of 1.6% in the previous three month period. |
| Taken together, it was the worst six-month decline in GDP since the ONS began publishing the figures. | |
| GDP measures the value of all the goods and services produced by a country. | GDP measures the value of all the goods and services produced by a country. |
| It was the biggest three-month decline in GDP since the third quarter of 1979. | |
| There's still a lot of weakness to come, but not as weak as we're seeing today George Buckley, Deutsche Bank Taking the UK's economic pulse How to cope with recession | |
| GDP for the year to the end of March fell by 4.1%. | |
| It was the third consecutive quarter of negative growth in GDP, and confirms that the economy is still deep in recession. | It was the third consecutive quarter of negative growth in GDP, and confirms that the economy is still deep in recession. |
| 'Weakness to come' | |
| The biggest contributor to the decline was the manufacturing sector, which shrank by 6.2% in the first three months of the year, having decreased by 4.9% in the previous quarter. | |
| "The last six months has seen the sharpest fall [in GDP] on record and the manufacturing number... is a record," Jon Beadle from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) told the BBC. | |
| "We've not seen a fall that size in the history of our numbers since the Second World War." | |
| Analysts suggested that this would be the worst contraction in the current recession. | |
| "I very much doubt that GDP is going to contract at these sort of rates for any longer, but I do think it will still contract all throughout 2009," said George Buckley at Deutsche Bank. | |
| "So there's still a lot of weakness to come, but not as weak as we're seeing today." |