UK's onshore economy never double dipped - Ward

The UK economy never experienced a 'double-dip' recession, if offshore oil figures are stripped out of the data, said Henderson Global Investors' economist Simon Ward.

The latest GDP data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) today confirmed the initial estimate showing the UK economy shrank by 0.3% in Q4. However, the real story was the revisions the ONS made to earlier readings. In particular, it revised the Q1 2012 reading, which had showed a contraction of 0.2%, to a contraction of 0.1% instead. This in itself means the UK economy very nearly avoided a double-dip recession last year. However, Ward (pictured) argues when oil and gas extraction - an offshore enterprise - is stripped out from the reading, the dip is eradicated ...