Britain's economic growth in the fourth quarter was revised up more than expected after new figures showed the service sector grew five times faster than initially estimated.
The Office for National Statistics said today that GDP grew by 0.3 per cent in the final three months of 2009, revised up from the initial 0.1 per cent estimate and stronger than analysts' forecasts of an upward revision to 0.2 per cent.
That still left GDP 3.3 per cent down on the year - a slightly bigger decline than earlier estimated because of downward revisions to previous data.
This means that Britain's economy now shrank at total 6.2 per cent during the recession from Q2 2008 to Q3 2009 inclusive, bigger than the 6.0 per cent decline estimated.
Still Britain came out of recession with greater gusto than had been previously estimated by the ONS.
Central bank policymakers, however, are unlikely to be surprised as they had anticipated at least some upward revision in their Inflation Report earlier in February.
The latest revision still makes GDP growth slower than what economists had forecast before the estimate published in January.
Reuters