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The recession is over (well sort of)

I’ve not done a lot of blogging lately so I haven’t commented on this yet, and as such it’s somewhat “old news.” However, I like to stick my oar in and come out with my two penny’s worth …. As United Kingdom readers of this blog will already know (unless you’ve been living under a rock) the United Kingdom has “officially” come out of recession; as such the UK was the last G7 country to do so.

Let’s not get too excited though. How much has the UK economy grown ? Are you ready ? 0.1% Media and blog reaction is (not unsurprisingly) somewhat unenthusiastic:

Britain limped out of recession yesterday with an anaemic return to growth that raised fears of a second downturn and wrecked Gordon Brown’s election strategy. Output rose by just 0.1 per cent in the final three months of last year, marking the formal end of the worst recession since the 1930s. – Daily Mail

Britain’s economic recovery plans were thrown into turmoil yesterday after official figures showed that the country had limped weakly out of recession. Growth was surprisingly low at 0.1 per cent during the final three months of 2009. Experts had predicted that the economy would grow by 0.4 per cent or more. Although the 18-month recession has now technically ended, the lacklustre performance alarmed financial experts, raised fears of a further slump and prompted a political row. – Telegraph

So, in Q4, with all the feverish Xmas buying, the rush to buy tat before VAT returned to 17.5% AND an unseasonal upswing on property purchases, partly due to the end of the stamp duty holiday for buyers of matchboxes, the economy grew by – are you sitting down? 0.1% – Al Jahom’s Final Word

In the real world of course (eg the world where people earn less than £25000 a year and a £100,000 banker style annual bonus is a mere fantasy) the vast majority of the UK populace won’t see any difference anytime soon. Bankers of course are already seeing profits again, ergo banker’s bonuses …. Sometimes a picture speaks a thousand words and Matt of the Telegraph sums it up nicely: