The UK economy is set to contract this year yet avoid a technical recession due to the changing global developments and support measures taken by the government, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said in his budget speech on Wednesday. The Office for Budget Responsibility, also known as the OBR, forecast the economy will not enter a recession at all this year with a contraction of just 0.2 percent, Hunt said as he presented the spring budget statement in the parliament. A technical recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of output decline.
In the autumn statement in November, the government had forecast the economy to enter a recession last year and a 1.4 percent shrinkage in GDP this year.
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June 19, 2026 16:46 ET Major central banks continued to dominate the economic news flow this week too, led by the Federal Reserve, as they announced their latest policy decisions. The Federal Reserve policy session was in focus as it was the first to be led by the new chief Kevin Warsh. In Europe, central banks of the U.K. and Switzerland announced their rate decisions. In Asia, the Bank of Japan drew attention for its policy moves, while data out of China threw some light on the state of the economy.