UK back in recession?

Two well respected bodies, the Ernst and Young ITEM club and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), say the UK is probably already in recession, seeing growth in the last quarter of 2011 lower and forecasting a further decline in gross domestic product for Q1 2012. Overall growth is expected to come in at 0.2% this year in the UK, with unemployment still rising, possibly hitting 3 million by the end of the year.

Two consecutive quarters of declining growth is the definition of a recession and we will not know for certain until the end of March, when statistics covering the current quarter are gathered, that the UK is actually in one.

Challenging conditions indeed, that are still having a major effect on the high street, as Peacocks who sell competitively priced clothing and have a branch network of around 750 shops across the UK, try to renegotiate their borrowing requirements with their main bankers. The company made £70 million profit last year but has a massive debt pile from when the company was taken private in 2006.