Britain economy shrinks 0.4 percent in third quarter, dashing hopes that recession is over

Britain economy remains in recession

LONDON — Britain’s statistics office says the domestic economy shrank 0.4 percent in the third quarter of the year — dashing hopes that the country may have exited recession.

Friday’s update from the Office for National Statistics shows that gross domestic product — which measures the total amount of goods and services produced by a country — was dragged lower in the July to September quarter despite recent gains in Britain’s dominant services sector.

The British economy has not recorded growth since the beginning of April 2008 — it officially entered recession at the turn of the year after two quarters of negative growth.

Economists had expected the report to be a close call between growth and contraction.