Relief as UK’s economy narrowly avoids recession

Reacting to the ONS GDP figures for Q4 2022, Phil Smith, Managing Director of Business West, said:

“We welcome the news that the UK has avoided a recession with flat GDP for Q4 compared to Q3, even though the first estimate indicates the economy contracted in December. 

“Businesses in our region will be hoping that 2023 witnesses a downturn as shallow and short duration as possible, given inflation looks to have peaked already. Energy costs, whilst expected to remain structurally higher than businesses are used to should at least not continue to climb further given wholesale energy costs have been coming down since Autumn 2022.

“In our Q4 2022 Quarterly Economic survey, only 6% of nearly 400 businesses told us that they felt confident in the nation’s economic prospects over the coming year. This underlines the need for realism when reading these early economic estimates. Businesses, especially those which are smaller, have faced huge challenges in the past few years with soaring inflation and rising energy costs, damaging their resilience going into 2023.”