Britain’s economic recovery slowed sharply in the first quarter of 2015, according to official figures from the Office for National Statistics.
The economy grew by only 0.3 per cent between January and March, half as much as that of the previous quarter. Economists had forecast a growth rate of 0.5 per cent.
David Cameron warned that the UK’s economic recovery could not be taken for granted and that a Labour government would put it in jeopardy.
The rate of growth for the first three months of 2015 was the slowest since the final quarter of 2012, when economists believed that the economy might fall back into recession.
The slowdown in the economy was unwelcome news to the Conservative party, coming in the final week before the next general election. Chief economist for IHS Global Insight, Howard Archer, said that the newly released figures would give a ‘jolt’ to the Coalition government, who had been hoping that the continued recovery of the economy would persuade undecided voters to vote for them.
The service industry was the only UK sector to show growth. The output of services, such as bars, restaurants and hotels, grew by 0.5 per cent during the first quarter but this was still down on the rate of growth for the last quarter of 2014, when it reached 0.9 per cent. It is, in fact, the only sector to have recovered and exceeded its pre-financial crisis level.
Other sectors shrank during the first three months of the year, with construction falling by 1.6 per cent, industrial production by 0.1 per cent and agricultural output by 0.2 per cent.
Industrial production barely grew, managing a growth of just 0.1 per cent, brought down largely by mining production and water and waste management.
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