The British economy has recovered the ground it lost in the 2008-09 financial crisis after it expanded 0.8 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter, dpa cited data released Friday as showing. The preliminary reading of gross domestic product (GDP) put economic output at 0.2 per cent over the pre-crisis economic peak Britain had achieved in early 2008, the government's independent National Statistics Office said. The British economy has now expanded six quarters in a row, including by 0.8 per cent in the first quarter. The data was released a day after the IMF raised its forecast for British economic growth for this year to 3.2 per cent, the highest prediction for any of the major world economies. The second-quarter growth more than made up for the 7.2-per-cent shrinkage Britain saw from 2008 to 2009 during the financial crisis. But Britain has also been the second to the last of the Group of Seven major developed world economies that has recovered from the financial crisis. Only Italy has yet to do so. Prime Minister David Cameron called the news "a major milestone" but admitted, "The country suffered hugely from the Great Recession, and there's more we need to do."
