Britain economy remains in recession

[October 23, 2009]  LONDON (AP) -- Britain's statistics office says the domestic economy shrank 0.4 percent in the third quarter of the year -- dashing hopes that the country may have exited recession.

Friday's update from the Office for National Statistics shows that gross domestic product -- which measures the total amount of goods and services produced by a country -- was dragged lower in the July to September quarter despite recent gains in Britain's dominant services sector.

The British economy has not recorded growth since the beginning of April 2008 -- it officially entered recession at the turn of the year after two quarters of negative growth.

Economists had expected the report to be a close call between growth and contraction.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.