"[U.K.] employment remains fragile and wage growth weak"
- Ross Walker, chief U.K. economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group
The U.K. economy shrank by more than expected in the first quarter of the year, revised figures have shown. Gross domestic product fell 0.3 per cent from a revised drop of 0.2 per cent, the Office for National Statistics said on Thursday.
"Despite all the problems in the euro area, France, Germany and the eurozone as a whole have so far avoided recession and only exports to other countries stopped us going into recession a year ago. The result is that Britain is now in a weaker position if things get worse in the eurozone in the coming months," said shadow chancellor Ed Balls.
"The economy is not recovering properly and with the uncertainty over Europe hanging over the outlook as well, our suspicion is the Monetary Policy Committee [of the Bank of England] will sanction further quantitative easing (QE) at some point later on this year," said Philip Shaw at Investec.
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