GDP figures keenly awaited

NEW figures released this morning will show whether the UK economy is on the road to recovery.

The first official growth figure for the second quarter will be published later with analysts forecasting a narrow contraction of around 0.2%.

The royal wedding was in part blamed for a 0.1% fall in UK growth in the second quarter of 2011 and the Jubilee celebrations are also forecast to have had an impact this year.

A contraction would mean the UK remains in technical recession after three consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth.

Official figures suggest the UK economy shrank by 0.3% in the final quarter of last year and by the same amount in the first three months of 2012.

This morning’s announcement will reignite the debate over whether the Bank of England’s quantitative easing programme is having an impact and whether the Government is doing enough to promote growth as well as cutting spending.

TheBusinessDesk.com will have details of the growth figures and reaction from business later this morning.