UK Economy Contracted by 0.6% in Last Three Months of 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Office for National Statistics stuck to its view that the harsh winter weather in December - the coldest December on record - contributed 0.5 percentage points to the decline

Britain's economy shrank by 0.6% in the final quarter of last year, a sharper fall than previously thought.

The surprise downward revision, from a 0.5% drop reported last month, was blamed on industry and service sector firms whose performance was worse than originally estimated. Consumer spending also slipped and the economy was kept afloat by higher government spending, which will see sharp cuts in coming months.

The Office for National Statistics stuck to its view that the harsh winter weather in December – the coldest December on record – contributed 0.5 percentage points to the decline, so without the snow GDP would still have shown a slight fall.

The pound slipped to the day's low of $1.6110 against the dollar. >>> Julia Kollewe | Friday, February 25, 2011