Out of Recession ! ! !

According to the today's news we are out of the recession because the economy grew by 0.1% in the last quarter of 2009.
Great isn't it! A whole tenth of one percent growth (probably rounded up from some lower figure)!
Now the definitions of going into and coming out of recessions are funny things. The generally accepted definition of entering a recession is when there are two consecutive quarters of negative growth. However to come out of a recession, it seems that we only need to have one quarter of infinitesimal growth and hey presto, its all over!
This, of course suits politicians, particularly Labour politicians, as it is now impossible for us to be in recession at the time of a general election as we cannot now have two further quarters of negative growth because the figures for the second quarter cannot come before the end of July!

But then we have to remember that this was fully expected! We were assured by Gordon that our country was best placed to come out of the recession. Well, he's really tried! Reducing VAT cost the country a lot of taxation revenue; Interest rates are stupidly low, and less than inflation, so anyone with spare cash was tempted to spend it whilst the going was good, no wonder people went out spending. Even so, a mere 0.1% growth, how low can you get! But will it even be this minuscule amount next month? Well time will tell. Not that it matters to Gordon, because we are out of the recession!

Incidentally, if we were so well placed, why is it that Germany, without any major government activity has been out of recession for two quarters, 0.4% in the June quarter and 0.7% in the September quarter with the figures for the final quarter not yet available. By any measure they are way ahead of us.

But We are Out of Recession. Neither the government or the BBC will let us forget this, whatever happens in the next quarter!