Economic growth in 2010 ‘will be weak’

Those hoping to get out of financial difficulty have been warned that economic recovery in 2010 will be weak.

This is according to Jonathan Lyons, chief European economist at Capital Economics, who was speaking in response to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announcement that gross domestic product increased by 0.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2010.

Mr Lyons said that this stunted growth underlines the current fragility of the economy.

“If we are only growing by 0.2 per cent per quarter it doesn’t take much to come along to knock it back into negative growth territory,” the specialist noted.

He added that this would provide a very weak platform for improvement throughout the year.

The main contributors to the ONS’ statistics were from distribution, hotels and restaurants, with growth in business, finance and government services as well.

Storage, communication and transport figures remained unchanged during this time.

By Joe Shervin