Britain's economy probably began growing again in the second half of the year and has a good chance of getting back on the path to low inflation growth next year, Bank of England policymaker Andrew Sentance said on Wednesday.
In an interview with Sky News, Sentance said consumer and business confidence had started to recover and global pressures had eased, although it will take some time for official figures to reflect any return to growth.
"When the exact turning point took place is very difficult to pinpoint and I think it may take a while for the official GDP figures to catch up with that," he said. "The economy stabilised over the summer and according to the most recent evidence it has begun to grow again."
The Office for National Statistics said earlier on Wednesday that the economy shrank for a sixth consecutive quarter in the three months to September but at a slower pace than previously reported.
GDP fell by 0.3 percent in the third quarter, less than the 0.4 percent fall reported last month.
Despite the latest figures, Sentance said it was "not clear that we are still in recession.
"We are now well into the fourth quarter and we have had quite a lot of positive information from business surveys, from figures for car sales, retail sales and from the international economy, that would suggest to me that actually the economy is now growing again in the second half of this year," he said.
"The monetary policy committee is really focussing on the real economy, on how we need to get the economy growing again and get the economy back on a low inflation growth path which I think we have a good chance of doing next year."
The decision to cut interest rates to a record low of 0.5 percent and to pump billions of pounds into the economy through the quantitative easing programme had helped to "limit the damage," he said.
"We have had to inject this extra money because there has been a very strong headwind blowing," he said. "The headwind from the global economy is easing, confidence is beginning to recover among consumers and companies."
The British economy could still face challenges from the financial sector and rising oil and commodity prices.
"We need to look out for those sources of volatility and try and manage them better," he said.
(Reporting by Peter Griffiths; Editing by Dan Grebler)
LONDON (Reuters)