UK recession not as bad as feared, as ONS revises figures

The Office of National Statistics has revised its GDP estimate for the second quarter from an initial estimate of a 0.7 percent decline to minus 0.5 percent.

More comprehensive figures have been released by the ONS today, giving a slightly improved indication of the UK economy than statistics unveiled in July.

The new figures show that production industry output fell by 0.9 percent, with manufacturing also seeing a 0.9 percent decline within this.  Output for the services industries fell by 0.1 percent, while construction saw a 3.9 percent drop.  Household expenditure decreased by 0.4 percent over the quarter.

While the decline may have lessened slightly, it is clear that the UK is still in recession – assuming of course that it has ever really been out of recession since the financial crash.

Effectively the UK economy is still lurching along, and businesses have little confidence that there will be any change in the short term at least.

There is some optimism that fortunes for the channel could improve coming into 2013, but that is not shared by all resellers and distributors, with many forecasting tough times for another while, particularly with European economies in disarray.