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The UK economy has exited recession, after figures showed the economy had grown by a weaker-than-expected 0.1% in the last three months of 2009. The economy had previously contracted for six consecutive quarters - the longest period since quarterly figures were first recorded in 1955. There have been recent recovery signs - last week UK unemployment fell for the first time in 18 months. The UK's had been the last major economy still in recession. Europe's two biggest economies - Germany and France - came out of recession last summer. Japan and the US also exited recession last year. "We can say that Britain has just crossed the line in coming out of recession," said BBC chief economics correspondent Hugh Pym. "It [the growth figure] was below analysts' expectations. The figure could be moved down, or indeed upwards." Our correspondent said the move out of recession had been greatly boosted by the government car scrappage scheme. Joe Grice, from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), said that the UK's production and service sectors each grew by 0.1% during the quarter. The ONS figures also showed that GDP fell by a record 4.8% in 2009. The UK recession began in the April-to-June quarter of 2008. During 18 months of recession, public borrowing increased to an estimated �178bn, while output slumped by 6%. First estimates of how the economy has performed are made with about 40% of the data available, and Investec economist David Page has warned there is "plenty of room for surprises" in the figures.