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LONDON: Britain's abridgement sank aback into recession in the aboriginal quarter, aback it apprenticed by 0.2 percent amidst advancing accompaniment acerbity and the eurozone debt crisis, official abstracts showed on Wednesday.

The British abridgement has now alternate to a abstruse recession, authentic as two alternating abode of contraction, afterwards shrinking by 0.3 percent in the antecedent three months, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed.

The abstracts ashamed best analysts' expectations that gross calm artefact (GDP) would abound by 0.1 percent in the division from January to March, compared with the final division of aftermost year.

The ONS added in a account that the abatement in first-quarter GDP -- the amount of all appurtenances and casework produced by the abridgement -- was apprenticed by a poor achievement by the architecture and accomplishment sectors.

Britain's abridgement had clawed its way out of a record-length recession in the third division of 2009 afterward a abatement sparked by the all-around banking crisis.

But it has now alternate to recession amidst aching government spending cutbacks and fallout from the debt crisis in the neighbouring eurozone, which is a key trading partner.

Britain joins a cardinal of eurozone countries in recession, including Spain, and bailed-out nations Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

Overall, the 17-nation eurozone's achievement shrank by 0.3 percent in the fourth division of aftermost year, while contempo anemic abstracts has sparked abysmal worries that the arena is additionally aback in recession.

Highlighting the admeasurement of Britain's debt strains, official abstracts on Tuesday showed accessible area net debt as a allotment of GDP -- excluding the amount of coffer bailouts -- hit a almanac aerial 66 percent in March.

Britain's absolute debt stands at #1.022 abundance (1.25 abundance euros, $1.65 trillion), the ONS had revealed.

"It's a actual boxy bread-and-butter situation," British accounts abbot George Osborne said on Wednesday afterward account that Britain was aback in recession.

"It's demography best than anyone hoped to balance from the better debt crisis of our lifetime -- alike afterwards the contempo abatement in unemployment. "But over abounding years this country congenital up massive debts, which we are accepting to pay off. It's fabricated abundant harder aback so abundant of the blow of Europe is in recession or branch into it.

"The one affair that would accomplish the bearings alike worse would be to carelessness our aboveboard plan and advisedly add added borrowing and alike added debt," added Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne.

The British batter fell adjoin the euro and the dollar on Wednesday, but London's FTSE 100 basis of arch shares captivated close in absolute territory.

The FTSE was 0.49 percent college at 5,737.31 credibility in backward morning deals.

"The bifold dip in recession comes as no abruptness to us. We accept been forecasting addition recession back aftermost November aback the eurozone crisis intensified," said Schroders economist Azad Zangana.

The recession account abject bazaar hopes for bashful first-quarter advance afterwards retail sales rebounded by a able 1.8 percent in March from the antecedent month.

Recent abstracts additionally showed that the cardinal of abandoned Britons fell by 35,000 in the three months to February, appearance the aboriginal annual abatement in about a year.