UK economy falls by 0.3% in Q4 2023

LONDON -- The gross domestic product (GDP) of the United Kingdom (UK) fell by an unrevised 0.3 percent in the last quarter of 2023, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed on Thursday.

It's the second consecutive quarter that the economy witnessed negative growth, which indicated that the UK fell into a recession in the second half of 2023. In the third quarter of 2023, GDP fell by 0.1 percent.

For the year 2023 as a whole, UK's GDP increased by an unrevised 0.1 percent compared with 2022, said the ONS.

"Excluding the year 2020, which was affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, this is the weakest annual change in real GDP since the financial crisis in 2009," said the ONS.

In the last quarter of 2023, output fell in all three main sectors with declines of 0.1 percent in services, 1.1 percent in production and 0.9 percent in construction, according to ONS.

Regarding the economic stagnation in the UK, Professor Iain Begg from the London School of Economics and Political Science told Xinhua that the primary challenge facing the UK economy is low productivity.

Martin Sartorius, principal economist at the Confederation of British Industry, also noted that low productivity tightens the labor market, leading to increased wage growth and persistent inflation, posing challenges to stronger economic growth.