AlHijjah 9, 1433, Oct 25, 2012, SPA -- The British economy emerged from recession in the third quarter of 2012, as the effect of the Olympic Games helped to produce growth of 1 per cent between July and September, officials said Thursday. The quarterly growth in gross domestic product (GDP) comes after contractions in the first two quarters, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. The figure was the biggest increase since the third quarter of 2007, and beat expert predictions of a rise of around 0.6 per cent. Several one-off events contributed to the rise, including ticket sales for the Olympic Games and a dent in the previous quarter's output due to an extra public holiday. Prime Minister David Cameron hailed the figures, saying that they showed Britain's economy was "on the right track. " However, the Labour Party opposition said that, despite the figures, underlying growth remained weak. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Britain has been hit by sluggish consumer spending, government cuts and high unemployment, while exports have been hit by the crisis in the eurozone. Services, which account for around three quarters of Britain's economy, showed an increase of 1.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter, while construction fell 2.5 per cent compared to the previous three-month period. Year-on-year, economic growth in the third quarter was flat, an improvement on the 0.5-per-cent contraction predicted by financial news agency Bloomberg.
