LONDON — Britain's Office for National Statistics says Britain suffered only one recession since the 2008 financial crisis — rather than two.
The statistics office rewrote history Thursday, revising its estimate of Britain's growth between the last quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012. The ONS says that instead of falling by 0.1 percent, the economy was actually flat — but the revision did remove the phenomenon of two consecutive quarters of negative growth, the common definition of a recession.
As a result of the revision, Britain did not suffer a double dip recession.
Chris Williamson an analyst at financial information company Markit says the revision is a reminder that all data should be taken with a grain of salt — not only when first released but for years after.
