Britain's economy recovered more strongly than previously thought between 2011 and 2013, a time when fears were rife that government austerity plans were pushing the country back into recession, according to revised official figures, Reuters reported . Releasing an annual review of British growth data, the Office for National Statistics said Britain's economy regained its pre-crisis size in the second quarter of 2013, three months earlier than its previous estimate. This came despite a slightly steeper recession in 2008 and 2009, and notably slower growth in 2010, when output rose 1.5 percent compared with an earlier 1.9 percent estimate. By contrast, better coverage of small businesses and improved methods of measuring the economy enabled the ONS to revise up growth by 0.4 percentage points for 2011 and by 0.5 percentage points for 2012 and 2013. Gross domestic product is now believed to have risen by 2.0 percent in 2011, 1.2 percent in 2012 and by 2.2 percent in 2013, the ONS said. "These revisions notwithstanding, the current recovery remains the weakest in the past half-century. In particular, (the changes) do not significantly alter the scale of the productivity puzzle," the ONS said. A report from Britain's National Institute of Economic and Social Research on Wednesday showed it expects the economy to grow 2.5 percent in 2015, in line with a Reuters poll of economists, after 3.0 percent growth in 2014. -- SPA 15:25 LOCAL TIME 12:25 GMT تغريد
