MADRID, 31 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The UK economy registered a minimal expansion of 0.1% in the fourth quarter of 2022, after the contraction of one tenth of the second largest European economy in the third quarter of last year, according to revised data published by this Friday the National Statistics Office (ONS).

Previously, the ONS had estimated that the GDP of the United Kingdom stagnated in the last quarter of 2022, after falling two tenths between July and September of last year.

Thus, it is now estimated that GDP increased by 4.1% in 2022 as a whole, one tenth more than expected, while compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, real GDP increased by 0.6%.

The level of activity in the United Kingdom economy is still 0.6% below that registered in the fourth quarter of 2019, the last before the Covid-19 pandemic, which implies an improvement of two tenths compared to the previous estimate.

Between October and December 2022, service sector activity increased by 0.1%, after a 0.2% increase in the third quarter. Overall, the services sector grew by 5.5% in 2022, compared to a 7% increase in 2021.

As for production, it remained unchanged in the fourth quarter of 2022, after five quarters of falls. Overall, the production sector experienced a 2.8% decline in 2022, compared to a 7.3% increase in 2021.

Likewise, an increase of 1.3% was registered in construction activity, having previously been estimated to have increased by 0.3%. In 2022, construction grew by 6.2% after growth of 13.1% in 2021.

At the latest revision, UK growth in the fourth quarter outpaced that of the Eurozone, which stagnated between October and December, as well as the EU as a whole, which contracted by 0.1%.

Likewise, in 2022, the 4.1% growth of the British economy was greater than the 3.5% expansion of the euro zone and the EU in the whole of last year.