UK Q4 GDP revised up to +0.3 percent

Britain's economic growth in the fourth quarter was revised up more than expected after new figures showed the service sector grew five times faster than initially estimated.

The Office for National Statistics said on Friday that GDP grew by 0.3 percent in the final three months of 2009, revised up from the initial 0.1 percent estimate and stronger than analyts' forecasts of an upward revision to 0.2 percent.

That still left GDP 3.3 percent down on the year — a slightly bigger decline than earlier estimated because of downward revisions to previous data.

This means that Britain's economy now shrank at total 6.2 percent during the recession from Q2 2008 to Q3 2009 inclusive, bigger than the 6.0 percent decline estimated.

Still Britain came out of recession with greater gusto than had been previously estimated by the ONS.

Central bank policymakers, howerver, are unlikely to be surprised as they had anticipated at least some upward revision in their Inflation Report earlier in February.

The latest revision still makes GDP growth slower than what economists had forecast before the estimate published in January.