LONDON, Nov 27: Britain’s economy emerged from recession in the third quarter with robust growth of 1.0 per cent, official data confirmed on Tuesday, in what was set to be only a brief respite from world financial strains.

“UK gross domestic product (GDP) in volume terms increased by 1.0 per cent between the second and third quarter of 2012, unrevised from the previously published estimate,” the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.

An initial ONS estimate last month showed Britain — a member of the EU but not the eurozone — powered out of its longest double-dip recession since the 1950s with a GDP gain of 1.0 per cent between July and September. But Britain’s strongest quarter-on-quarter rate for five years came thanks to one-off factors such as the London Olympic Games.

“Quarterly UK GDP growth in Q3 has been left unrevised in the second estimate at a solid one per cent, but most of this reflected temporary factors and evidence is building that activity in the fourth quarter has relapsed,” said Vicky Redwood, chief UK economist at the Capital Economics research group.

“The spending breakdown showed a decent rise in consumer spending of 0.6 per cent quarter-on-quarter, but at least part of this reflected an Olympics boost.” The ONS added that British GDP had contracted by 0.1 per cent in the third quarter on an annual basis, compared with initial estimates of zero growth.

The Bank of England (BoE) earlier this month cut its forecast for British economic expansion and predicted low growth for the next three years owing to the eurozone crisis, tight credit conditions and inflationary pressures. The GDP expansion was predicted to average 1.0 per cent in 2013, the central bank said in its latest quarterly report. That compared with the previous forecast of around 2.0 per cent given in August.

Adding to the gloom, the BoE’s outgoing head Mervyn King declared that activity could shrink again in the fourth quarter of 2012.—AFP