Optimism…
They keep saying the UK should emerge faster and stronger than other economies (and that may still turn out to be the case, give horrible performances elsewhere) from the recession–or whatever it is–but the carnage continues to get worse:
Economy suffers steepest fall in 50 years
The Independent
By Russell Lynch, Press Association
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
The UK economy recorded its sharpest decline in more than 50 years during the first quarter of 2009, figures showed today.
And revisions to figures revealed the current recession began earlier than first thought, with a 0.1 per cent decline seen between April and June last year compared with previous estimates of zero growth.
Output fell 2.4 per cent in the first three months of the year – the fastest rate since 1958, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
The economy also showed an annual decline of 4.9 per cent – the biggest fall since ONS records began in 1948.
The first-quarter decline of 2.4 per cent is much worse than the 1.9 per cent first estimated and comes after bigger-than-expected falls in construction and the UK’s key services sector.
The plummet in activity between January and March was almost equal to the 2.5 per cent fall suffered during the whole of the recession in the 1990s, Investec’s David Page said.
He warned: “The economy is now likely to undergo a peak to trough adjustment in excess of 5 per cent, nearly as big as the overall 5.9 per cent collapse seen from 1979-1981.”
The scale of the decline could put pressure on Chancellor Alistair Darling’s forecasts for the public finances this year.
Read the rest of the article
