THINK tank the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has predicted that the UK is about to slip into a double-dip recession.
It forecasts that the economy will shrink by 0.025 per cent in the final three months of this year, and by 0.15 per cent in the three months after that.
South West Herts MP David Gauke, also the government’s treasury minister, points out that the Independent Office for Budget Responsibility says the UK will not go back into recession.
The independent group made the prediction at the end of last month – just after the OECD made its prediction.
Mr Gauke said the Independent Office for Budget Responsibility used factors including commodity prices and Eurozone problems to predict that the UK will grow by 0.7 per cent next year.
He said it is very important Britain sticks to its deficit reduction plan: “We are doing what we can to protect the UK from the economic turmoil that exists.”