UK AVOIDS TRIPLE DIP RECESSION: Q1 GDP Beats Expectations, British Pound Spikes

One of the sickest economies in the developed world is the UK.

But for a brief moment, the country has reason to celebrate.

UK GDP for Q1 grew at 0.3% vs. 0.1% expected. That means that for now it has avoided the triple dip recession.

This will be a big relief to the government of David Cameron and Finance Minister George Osborne, who have been taking a shellacking with rebukes from the IMF, from the press, from the public, and even the ratings agencies on their economic management.

The British Pound, which has been one of the world's weakest currencies, is up huge on the news.

Here's a chart (via FinViz) going back several days. The big green bar at the end is today's surge.

FinViz

Interestingly, despite all the talk about austerity, the big bonus seems to have come from a reversal of government spending.

A big swing in the UK GDP numbers was the Govt contribution going from -0.2% in 4Q12 to +0.1% in 1Q13.

— Steve Baines (@spbaines) April 25, 2013