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Title: Britain sinks far deeper into recession than forecast Post by: Psalm 51:17 on July 25, 2012, 01:06:24 pm http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/25/us-uk-gdp-idUSBRE86O0CM20120725
7/25/12 (Reuters) - Britain's economy shrank far more than expected in the second quarter, battered by everything from an extra public holiday to government spending cuts and the neighboring euro zone crisis. Finance minister George Osborne said figures released on Wednesday showed Britain had "deep-rooted economic problems," adding that the slump in the second quarter was disappointing even when taking into account one-off factors that hurt. Britain's gross domestic product fell 0.7 percent compared with the first three months, the sharpest fall since the height of the global financial crisis in early 2009, the Office for National Statistics said, showing a bigger drop than any of the economists surveyed in a Reuters poll last week had expected. Output in Britain's service sector -- which makes up more than three quarters of GDP -- contracted by 0.1 percent in the second quarter after growing 0.2 percent in Q1 2012. Industrial output was 1.3 percent lower, while construction -- which accounts for less than 8 percent of GDP -- shrank by 5.2 percent, its biggest drop since the first quarter of 2009. more Title: Re: Britain sinks far deeper into recession than forecast Post by: Psalm 51:17 on December 13, 2012, 02:38:25 pm S&P cuts outlook on U.K. AAA rating to negative 13 December 2012, by William L. Watts - Frankfurt (MarketWatch) http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sp-cuts-outlook-on-uk-aaa-rating-to-negative-2012-12-13-12913854 Standard & Poor's Ratings Services on Thursday cut its outlook on the U.K.'s credit rating to negative from stable, warning that the country could lose its AAA status within two years if its fiscal picture shows worse-than-expected deterioration. "We believe this could occur in particular as a result of a delayed and uneven economic recovery, or a weakening of political commitment to consolidation," S&P said, in a news release. The negative outlook "reflects our view of a one-in-three chance that we could lower the ratings in the next two years if the U.K.'s economic and fiscal performances weaken beyond our current expectations," S&P said. |