The British economy expanded just 0.2 per cent in the first three months of 2010, lower than the growth rate in the December quarter, indicating the recovery is on a shaky ground.

The sluggish growth in the January-March period, which has come less than two weeks before the general polls, indicates that the UK economy continues to struggle. "Gross Domestic Product increased 0.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2010, compared with an increase of 0.4 per cent in the previous quarter.

The decrease in the growth rate was due to weaker growth in services," the Office for National Statistics said in a statement on Friday. The UK economy witnessed a growth of 0.4 per cent in the 2009 December quarter, after being battered by the financial meltdown.

This marked the country coming out of recession, following six straight quarters of contraction. According to the statement, the total services output rose 0.2 per cent in the March quarter as compared to 0.5 per cent in the last three months of 2009.

"The largest contribution to the weaker growth was from distribution, hotels and restaurants, but there was increased growth in business services and finance and government and other services," it added.

Earlier this week, official statistics showed that the number of jobless people in the country touched 2.5 million, the highest in more than 15 years, for the three months to February.