The United Kingdom economy fell into recession at the end of last year, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows.

In a statement on Thursday, February 14, the ONS said that Britain’s gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by a worse-than-expected 0.3 percent in the last three months of 2023.

This, ONS says, followed a technical recession of 0.1 percent between the months of July and September. Though there is no official definition of a recession, two straight quarters of negative growth is widely considered a technical recession.

A section of households, which have been hard-pressed by soaring interest rates and rising cost of living have already started cutting back on spending.

Data also shows that all the main sectors of Britain’s economy declined, while retail sales collapsed over this period (in the run-up to Christmas).

This is a huge blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who had made “growing the economy” one of big five agendas of his government, with elections less than a year away.