LONDON, Jan 27, 2010 (AFP) – The British press bid farewell to the longest recession on record Wednesday but seemed unimpressed with the “sickly” growth rate that hauled the country from its economic mire.

“Britain hardly felt a roar of recovery in the fourth quarter of last year,” lamented the Financial Times newspaper.

“Instead, the economy limped out of recession, helped mainly by shoppers and people eating out.”

Official data released Tuesday showed Britain narrowly escaped from recession in the three months to December, but it grew at just 0.1 percent which was below market expectations for a 0.4-percent expansion.

The modest growth ended a deep downturn which began in the second quarter of 2008 as a result of the global financial crisis.

The Financial Times labelled the figures “disappointingly sickly”, while the Guardian said they were “a squeak of a recovery”.

“Recession over (but only just!),” read the headline in the Sun.

The newspaper, which supports the main opposition Conservative party, argued the data would have left Prime Minister Gordon Brown “in utter despair — his entire election strategy is now in tatters.”

Indeed, other newspapers raised the prospect the economy could shrink again before a general election expected in May, dealing a blow to the ruling Labour party. Polls predict the Conservatives are on course to win the vote.

“Labour strategists fear the country could contract again before a May general election,” said the Financial Times.

The left-leaning Guardian, however, praised Brown’s government for bringing about even this small turnaround in the country’s economic fortunes.

“In some small part and perhaps more than that, the levelling-off is a tribute to distinctive choices made by his government,” it said.

Still, it concluded an editorial article with the remark: “A corner may have been turned, but it hardly feels like it.”