Double-Dip Recession in Britain
By JULIA WERDIGIER and JACK EWING
LONDON ? Britain has fallen into its first double-dip recession since the 1970s, according to official figures released Wednesday, a development that raised more questions about whether government belt-tightening in Europe has gone too far.
The report of an unexpected 0.2 percent decline in economic output during the first quarter of 2012 provoked an outcry in Britain and came on the same day that Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, shifted his rhetoric on the debt crisis to put more emphasis on growth.
Mr. Draghi called for a ?growth compact? and a re-examination of where the euro is headed.
?We need to actively step up our reflections about the longer-term vision for Europe as we have done in the past at other defining moments in the history of our union,? Mr. Draghi told members of the European Parliament in Brussels.
Yet, amid growing popular unrest, Mr. Draghi rejected calls for more deficit spending. The way to restore growth is to make economies more efficient, he said. ?We have to persevere,? he added.
Britain is now in its second recession in three years. The last time the country experienced a double-dip recession was when Margaret Thatcher was elected leader of the opposition Conservative Party in 1975.
In a packed British Parliament, Prime Minister David Cameron had to defend his austerity drive against critics like Ed Miliband, head of the opposition Labour Party, who called the economic numbers ?catastrophic.?
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