Economy

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has just had to admit that its growth figures for quarter 2 were hopeless wrong. The ONS rushed out figures showing that the economy had shrunk by 0.7% in quarter 2, seemingly desperate to show that the eceonomy had gone into double dip territory. It has now been forced to admit that its figures were 29% wrong, and the economy only shrank by 0.5%. You'd get more accurate figures by hanging a piece of seaweed from your garden shed!
Many experts still doubt the accuracy of the new figures as they simply don't stack with a whole raft of economic data. In quarter 2 employment rose by 200,000 - not something firms would do if the economy was collapsing back into recession! Retail sales also grew by over 3% in the same period!
Meanwhile, the mandarins at the ONS are predicting growth of 0.7% in quarter 3 (which at an annualised rate is near boom). They don't seem to be able to explain why the economy should go from bust in quarter 2 to boom in quarter 3 when nothing in the wider economy has changed.
The numbers all point to the fact that it makes more sense that the economy was not in fact in negative territory in quarter 2 and that there was no double dip!