LONDON British gross domestic product in the second quarter of 2023 was 0.2% higher than the quarter before, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed on Friday.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a reading showing quarterly growth of 0.2%, unchanged from an initial estimate published on Aug. 11.

The economy as a whole in the second quarter of 2023 was 1.8% larger than in the final quarter of 2019, the last full quarter before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This represented a revision from the most recent previous ONS estimate, on Aug. 11, that the economy was still 0.2% smaller than before the pandemic, which had placed it at the bottom of the table among major advanced economies.

An upward revision to the size of Britain's economy had been widely expected, after the ONS published preliminary revisions on Sept. 1 suggesting the economy was already 0.6% larger than its pre-pandemic size in the final quarter of 2021.

That revision left Britain's initial economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic looking similar to France's and Italy's.

Britain's relative economic performance since the pandemic and its departure from the European Union has been a focus of political debate, especially with a national election likely next year.

(This story has been corrected to change the prior comparison period to quarter, not from month, in paragraph 1)

(Reporting by David Milliken and Andy Bruce; editing by William James)