Just in case anybody out there was unaware of this news, the UK is now officially in recession.

Most people already knew that this was the case of course, but the latest figures for growth last year have confirmed that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was in the red by 1.5 per cent for the last three months of last year, following a decline of 0.6 per cent in the previous three months.

This last decline in GDP is the largest single quarter drop since the middle of 1980 and is much greater than was expected by experts, who had predicted a fall of 1.2 per cent.

The definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth, and now that this has happened, what we already knew has now been made official.

Although opinions are divided on how long the recession will last, many experts are optimistic that recent Government plans to assist the banking sector will have a positive impact, allowing banks and building societies to be able to offer loans to businesses as well as returning to offering homeowner loans to potential buyers, giving a boost to the housing market and therefore the rest of the economy as a whole.

John Cridland of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said “The intensity and speed of falling demand combined with the global credit crunch mean this recession is going to be more painful than the early nineties and sadly one consequence of this will be higher unemployment.

Looking ahead, we hope the impact of interest rate cuts, falling inflation, the fiscal stimulus and the Government’s recent measures to kick start lending will have a stabilising effect later this year.”