Britain's economy contracts by 0.3% in Q4

Britain's economy contracted by 0.3 percent in the final quarter of 2012, official data confirmed on Wednesday. "UK gross domestic product (GDP) in volume terms was estimated to have decreased by 0.3 percent between the third and fourth quarter of 2012, unrevised from the previous publication," the Office for National Statistics said in a statement. Should official data due next month show that Britain's economy also shrank in the current first quarter of 2013, then the country would technically enter its third recession since the 2008 global financial crisis. The ONS added that British GDP rose by 0.3 percent overall last year.