By Xavier Fontdegloria The U.K. economy stagnated in the fourth quarter, narrowly avoiding a technical recession in the second half of 2022, but activity is likely to face a downturn this year as households and firms are hit by rapidly rising interest rates.
The U.K.’s gross domestic product stalled from October to December compared with the third quarter, preliminary data from the Office for National Statistics showed Friday. Still, this marks an improvement from the third quarter, when the economy shrank 0.2%. A technical recession is broadly defined as two consecutive quarters of declining output. Write to Xavier Fontdegloria at xavier.fontdegloria@wsj.com