UK Slips Back Into Recession

The latest economic data shows the UK has slipped back into recession amongst calls for a greater bailout fund in the midst of greatest economic slump in over 100 years.

The latest report from the global think tank OECD shows that UK has slipped back into recession while warning the Eurozone needs a bigger bailout fund to shore off an economic collapse.
The report also warns off continued of GPD contraction in France and Italy admits the greatest economic slump in Europe over the last 100 year – even greater than the Great Depression.

Eurozone finance ministers need to impress finance markets with the size of their rescue fund for indebted countries when they meet later this week according to Angel Gurria, the head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

He said that is because the eurozone’s public debt crisis is not over, despite calmer financial markets.
The OECD has warned the region’s banks remain weak, debt levels are still rising and governments’ fiscal targets are far from assured.
“The mother of all firewalls should be in place, strong enough, broad enough, deep enough, tall enough, just big,” Gurria said, as he presented the economic think tank’s latest report in Brussels.
At their meeting this week eurozone finance ministers are expected to agree on combining the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) with its permanent European Stability Mechanism (ESM).
Those are the two rescue funds for the 17-nation currency area.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel signalled for the first time on Monday that she was prepared to consider boosting the firewall’s resources.

Investment Week reports:

UK back in recession – OECD

The UK is back in recession, according to the latest growth projections from the OECD, while the recovery in the G7 economies remains ‘fragile’.

The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development said the UK experienced a contraction of 1.2% in the fourth quarter of last year, and shrank 0.4% in the first quarter of 2012. Two consecutive quarters of negative growth means the economy is in technical recession.
However, it is predicting the economy will grow 0.5% in the second quarter of this year.
[...]The OECD projects the euro area’s three largest economies – Germany, France and Italy – will shrink by 0.4% on average during the first quarter, before a moderate 0.9% growth recovery in the second quarter.
Germany is expected to accelerate through the first half of the year, with growth of 0.1% in the first quarter and 1.5% in Q2.
France is forecast to shrink 0.2% in Q1 and grow 0.9% in Q2. In Italy, weak industrial production and household sentiment suggest recession for the first two quarters of the year, but the most recent indicators have been more positive, resulting in slightly better projected growth for the second quarter, the OECD said.
[...]
“Government action will continue to be critical, particularly in the euro area, where unfinished policy business on fiscal frameworks, financial firewalls and fundamental structural reforms must move ahead,” Padoan said.
[...]
Source: Investment Week

The Daily Mail reports:

Just when George Osborne thought it couldn’t get any worse, OECD says Britain is back in recession

• Figures show output has fallen for the first three months of 2012
• Recession will fuel fears Britain faces years of high unemployment
• In his Budget last week, the Chancellor predicted Britain would avoid slump

Britain has crashed back into recession, a leading international watchdog declared today.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said the economy has been in reverse since October last year.
It said output fell by 0.1 per cent in the first three months of 2012 having dropped 0.3 per cent in the final quarter of 2011.
The gloomy verdict – from such a highly respected think tank – is a bitter blow to George Osborne just a week after his much-maligned ‘pasty tax’ announced in the Budget.
[...]Mr Osbourne is already under fire for his controversial tax on takeaway food and a planned rise in fuel duty.
Petrol stations have begun rationing fuel before the rise kicks in and the Army is on standby after ministers were accused of spreading panic.
[...]In its report, the OECD also warned the recovery for the world’s biggest economies would be fragile, with the outlook for Europe ‘very weak’.
A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of economic decline.
[...]

[...]

The return to recession will fuel fears that the UK faces years of high unemployment and stagnant growth.
Economists have warned that Britain is in the grip of the longest economic slump for 100 years – worse even than the Great Depression of the 1930s.
[...]The OECD said the recent hikes in oil prices, which have pushed Brent crude to above 120 US dollars a barrel, would push inflation up higher than it previously thought, wiping up to 0.2% from growth across G7 nations over the next year.
It expects Italy. which is already in recession, to contract for the first two quarters of 2012, while France will contract in the first quarter and Germany’s growth will be lacklustre.

[...]

Source: The Daily Mail

Press TV reports:

A leading global think tank has said that Britain has slipped back into recession as forecasts show the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) continues to shrink in the first quarter of 2012.

Press TV – The Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation (OECD) has calculated that Britain’s economic output has shrunk by 0.1% over the period between January and March.
Moreover, the revised figures from Britain’s Office of National Statistics revealed that the country’s economy had contracted 0.3% in the last quarter of 2011.
As a recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth, the British economy has fallen into a double dip recession following the recession in 2008-2009.
Nevertheless, in his Budget speech last week, British Chancellor George Osborne, predicted that Britain could avoid returning to a recession. Osborne said that the government’s tax and spending watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, had predicted that the British economy would grow positively during the first three months of 2012.
Osborne also claimed that the British economy would grow 0.8% in 2012 and 2% in 2013 and would continue to grow reaching a growth rate of 2.7% in 2014.
The OECD also predicted that among the largest economies, Britain would experience a very slow economic recovery, with only Italy struggling longer to get its economy back on track.