ONS, BBC NEWS (UK)
LONDON – Britain’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported Thursday that the UK economy has emerged from recession, helped by the Olympic Games.
In the three months from July to September, the country’s economy returned to growth at its fastest pace in five years, with its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rising 1%, ending three consecutive quarters of declining output.
The Office for National Statistics said that Olympic ticket sales added 0.2 percentage points to the figures – as all Olympic and Paralympic ticket sales counted towards July to September’s GDP figure. Though officials acknowledged the artificial boost of Olympic sales, the numbers were still far better than the 0.6% rise that analysts had forecast.
“There is still a long way to go, but these figures show we are on the right track,” said Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne quoted by BBC News.
