The UK economy has shown a few signs of improvement in the first three months of this year, following a recent report from the British Chambers of Commerce.

The British Chambers of Commerce had previously warned of “stagflation”.

The group expects economic growth of 0.3% in the first quarter of 2012, which would mean the UK would avoid a technical recession – defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction.  Last week, the international economic think tank, the OECD, said it expects the UK economy to contract at the start of the year, taking the country back into recession.   But on Monday, data suggested the manufacturing sector grew at its fastest pace for 10 months in March in an encouraging sign that the economy could return to growth in the first quarter, after contracting by 0.3% in the last three months of 2011.

The British Chambers of Commerce predicted that the economy would grow by just 0.6% across 2012.

Credit: BBC/Reuters/dw-world