UK Economy Crawls Out of Recession

There have been recent recovery signs - last week, UK unemployment fell for the first time in 18 months. Photo by utilityweek.co.uk

The UK economy has come out of recession, after figures showed it had grown by a weaker-than-expected 0,1% in the last three months of 2009.

The economy had previously contracted for six consecutive quarters - the longest period since quarterly figures were first recorded in 1955, the BBC reported.

There have been recent recovery signs - last week, UK unemployment fell for the first time in 18 months.

The UK's had been the last major economy still in recession.

Europe's two biggest economies - Germany and France - came out of recession last summer. Japan and the US also emerged from recession last year.