Unions have warned that government economic policies are failing “on every measure that matters to people”, after official figures showed the UK economy grew by just 0.3%.
The figures – released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics – show that the economy struggled narrowly to avoid a widely-feared “triple dip” recession.
Coalition government ministers said the figures showed the economy was “healing”.
However, critics say austerity policies have “killed” confidence, left banks and the finance sector refusing to lend to companies seeking to expand or hold on to jobs, and created an economy too heavily reliant on the services sector.
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The Chancellor has set the economic bar so low that avoiding the UK’s first ever triple dip recession is considered good news.
“We are back to where we were six months ago, and not much further on from when the Chancellor started his austerity experiment.
“The government’s economic policies are still failing on every measure that matters to people.”
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a measure of the total economic activity in the UK.
When politicians and others refer to ‘growth in the economy’, they are usually referring to the growth in GDP during the latest quarter.
(Pictured, below: increases in services and industrial production helped growth in GDP, but construction output fell by 2.5%. Source: ONS)
The ONS figures showed that the UK economy was still 2.6% smaller than in 2008, with construction remaining 18.1% and manufacturing 13.4% below pre-recession levels.
Len McCluskey, Unite general secretary said: “[The] figures showing miniscule growth are nothing for George Osborne to crow about.
“The economy is in a coma as Osborne’s failed handling of the economy propels us into a ‘lost decade’. Despite the misery of three years of cuts and falling living standards, this government has brought us back to where we were six months ago.
“As the economy flatlines ordinary families face failing living standards and a future of uncertainty.
“We desperately need a plan B that jolts the economy out its comatose state and delivers prosperity, not self-defeating austerity.”
Figures released earlier this week showed that the number of people using food banks for emergency food supplies has trebled in the past year.
Analysts say there has been a fivefold rise in the number of people turning to food banks since the Coalition took power in May 2010.
According to the Tressell Trust, a charity that supplies food banks in the UK and Bulgaria, 346,992 people received a minimum of three days emergency food from its food banks in 2012-13, compared to 128,697 in 2011-12.
The equivalent figure was 40,898 in 2010.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “While Osborne and his millionaire allies will no doubt celebrate this pitiful performance, the real effects of his catastrophic handling of our economy are being felt by millions of people across the country.
“Osborne is not just incompetent, he is an economic vandal who doesn’t deserve to be in a job, let alone have his hands on the nation’s purse strings.
“As part of an alternative of investment in our economy, the very obvious link should be made between the need to boost construction and the millions of people waiting for social housing.”
Union News
