The United Kingdom’s economy has exited last year’s recession with faster than expected growth of 0.6% for the first quarter of 2024, providing great economic news for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of the general election.
The quarter-on-quarter growth figure was the fastest since 2021 and boosted by car manufacturing and broad-based growth in services. It beat the 0.4 per cent forecast by the Bank of England and economists polled by Reuters.
The GDP numbers released by the Office for National Statistics on Friday marked the UK’s formal recovery from the shallow recession of the second half of 2023, when output slightly fell for two consecutive quarters, hit by high borrowing costs and prices.
