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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Larry Elliott Economics editor

Even a technical recession is a headache for Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak at a meeting in 10 Downing Street this week.
Rishi Sunak at No 10 this week. The economy showed across-the-board weakness in the fourth quarter of 2023. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

In the end it wasn’t really that close. The UK economy is now technically in recession after contracting by 0.3% in the final three months of 2023.

The official data brings to an end a miserable year for the UK. Growth in 2023 as a whole was just 0.1% – the weakest performance outside the Covid pandemic year of 2020 since 2009.

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