The UK economy has exited the recession after five quarters of negative growth, new figures show.

The UK economy has exited the recession after five quarters of negative growth, new figures show.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed that gross domestic product rose by 0.1 per cent in the last three months of 2009, although this growth was four times smaller than many economists had predicted.

Ted Scott, director of UK equity strategy at F&C, claimed that the exit was more of a "whimper than a bang".

He said that the consequence of the government's bank bailout has been to compromise economic growth, as financial services providers concentrate on consolidating their positions at the cost of lending less.

"For domestic stocks it is clearly a negative factor and from a macro viewpoint it will make it more difficult for the government to address the pressing issue of the large deficit," Mr Scott asserted.

According to the ONS figures, the service and production industries both experienced growth of 0.1 per cent.