Britain's economy shrank by 0.5 per cent between April and June - slightly less than previously feared - though the revised official figures published Friday still show the country is stuck in recession.
The Office for National Statistics said the revision from a 0.7 per cent drop was in part due to a milder-than-forecast drop in manufacturing and construction output.
Those two sectors nevertheless remain the weak points of the economy. The one-off jubilee holiday to mark the Queen's 60 years on the throne - and a sustained bout of wet weather earlier this year - may also have played a role in keeping the economy down, the office said.
Vicky Redwood, the chief U.K. economist at Capital Economics, said that the slightly improved figures had been widely expected, "but the revision is very small in the big picture and means that output is still more than four per cent below its pre-recession peak," she said - a reference to the height of the boom years that preceded the 2008 financial crisis.
