EUROPE ECONOMY
Posted Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 at 5:30 am
Britain is back in recession.
The Office for National Statistics on Wednesday said the country's economy shrank by two-tenths of a percent for the first three months of the year. That drop follows a three-tenths of a percent decline over the last three months of 2011.
A recession is defined as two consecutive three-month periods of negative growth.
Most economists had forecast slight growth for the British economy to start 2012.
The news that Britain has slipped back into recession comes a day after Greece's central bank said that country's troubled economy is shrinking even faster than first thought.
The bank's governor, George Provopoulos, said Tuesday the Greek economy will contract as much as 5 percent this year — the country's fifth straight year of recession. Just a month ago, the bank had predicted the economy would shrink 4.5 percent.
Provopoulos said that as soon as Greek voters pick a new government in the May 6 elections, the debt-ridden country needs to return quickly to imposing more austerity measures to keep its deficit spending in check.
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