LONDON // Britain skirted a "triple dip" recession by growing faster than expected in the first months of the year, providing cover for a government under fire over its austerity drive.
The Office for National Statistics said yesterday that Britain's gross domestic product rose 0.3 per cent in the first quarter of the year, above forecasts for a 0.1 per cent rise.
It shrank 0.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter in late 2012, and another contraction would have put Britain into its third recession in less than five years.
