The UK economy grew more than previously estimated in the fourth quarter but the overall contraction for the whole year of 2020 was the biggest on record, data from the Office for National Statistics showed on Wednesday.
Gross domestic product grew 1.3 percent sequentially in the fourth quarter instead of +1 percent estimated initially. The economy had expanded sharply by 16.9 percent in the third quarter.
The level of GDP was still 7.3 percent below its fourth quarter of 2019, revised from the previous estimate of 7.8 percent.
Over the whole year of 2020, GDP contracted by 9.8 percent, slightly revised from the first estimate of a 9.9 percent decline. This was the biggest contraction on record.
On the production side, there have been increases in services, production and construction output. Services output grew by an upwardly revised 1 percent and production output gained 2 percent. Construction output advanced by downwardly revised 2.7 percent in the fourth quarter.
The expenditure-side breakdown showed that there was an increase in real government expenditure of 6.7 percent, particularly driven by healthcare and education expenditure.
There was an increase in gross fixed capital formation and inventories in the quarter, while household consumption posted a slight fall of 1.7 percent in the quarter.
Gross fixed capital formation grew by a revised 4.4 percent and business investment increased by an upward revised 5.9 percent in the fourth quarter.
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