The UK economy showed its weakest year-on-year performance for 12 years during the second quarter of this year, and manufacturing seemed to enter recession. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth on a 12-month comparison stood at 1.7 percent during the second quarter — the weakest 12-month performance since the first quarter of 1993.

The annual growth rate dropped from 2.1 per cent to 1.7 per cent, which marks the lowest rate of growth since the first quarter of 1993 and almost half of the 3.2 per cent growth rate achieved only in 2004.

Output by manufacturing companies declined 0.7 per cent after a fall of 0.9 per cent in the first quarter, confirming that the sector had dropped into a technical recession, which is defined as two consecutive quarters of falling output.