UK economy shrinks 0.5%
The Office for National Statistics said the country's GDP fell 0.5 percent, instead of increasing the rate of 0.5 percent was the average forecast of economists polled by Thomson Reuters. The economy grew 1.2 percent and 0.7 percent in the second and third quarters respectively.
"The change in GDP in the fourth quarter was clearly impacted by extremely bad weather in December last year," said Wed Were it not for the snow on Wednesday estimated that production for the quarter would have been " show a flat image. "
Preliminary estimates of GDP produced only a few weeks after the end of the quarter, based on less than half of the information coming to the NSO at the time of the second review.
Some of the industries with the highest contraction in the quarter are those which are more sensitive to the effects of bad weather. For example, distribution - including retailers, many of which have already reported sales figures, reflecting the effects of heavy snow - hotels and restaurants fell 0.5 percent in the fourth quarter. These activities have sent an increase of 0.5 percent in the third quarter.
In addition, business services and finance decreased by 0.7 percent in the last three months of 2010 against a production platform in the third quarter.
The data raise fears a relapse into recession, the impact of government cuts to reduce the deficit will begin to take effect.
Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, told the BBC before the publication of data that the harsh winter would take its toll on growth figures: "There is a reasonable consensus that this quarter bad enough, for reasons mainly to do with climate, in fact.
"It 's been very ill, and was clearly a significant impact on construction and other industries in the time-dependent."