Britain's GDP Drops 0.2 Pct for Q4 2011

LONDON, Feb. 27 -- Britain's economy shrank 0.2 percent for the last quarter of 2011, according to a second official estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) issued by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Friday.

The figure marks a sharp drop in economic growth in Britain from the third quarter of 2011, when its GDP saw an increase of 0.6 percent.

Meanwhile, the economic growth for the full year of 2011 was adjusted down from the previous 0.9 percent to 0.8 percent.

According to the second estimate of ONS, output of the production industries fell by 1.4 percent, within which the manufacturing sector fell by 0.8 percent.

Output of the service industries was unchanged with a rise of 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, while output of the construction industry fell by 0.5 percent.

ONS said household final consumption expenditure increased by 0.5 percent in volume terms in the latest quarter.

In current price terms, compensation of employees fell by 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011.

A recent report from the British central bank, the Bank of England, predicts that Britain's economy will grow by about 1 percent and forecasts inflation will continue to fall in the coming months.

It said Britain's economy would "zigzag" this year, dipping in and out of growth, but would not go back into recession.