CBI: UK likely out of recession, but faces slow recovery

LONDON: Britain has probably come out of recession but the pace of recovery in 2010 will be slow, with tight credit and weak domestic demand posing obstacles to an upturn, the Confederation of British Industry said yesterday.

It expected the economy to have grown by 0.3 percent between July and September, and forecasts an expansion of 0.4 percent for the fourth quarter - an improvement from its prognosis in June that growth would not return until early next year.

However, the CBI said the upturn will have been driven by firms starting to increase production after a long period of destocking, and it cautioned it was far from certain that demand would be strong enough to support the recovery going forward.