Posted on 10/23/2009 10:20:09 AM PDT by Steelfish
This Recession Just Became A Depression
By Edmund Conway Economics Editor October 23rd, 2009
It is difficult to know what to be most shocked by in the gross domestic product figures published by the Office for National Statistics this morning: the fact that we are in the longest-lasting deepest continuous recession in recorded history or that no-one in the City foresaw it*.
Leaving aside the City’s failings, with which we are intimately familiar, the scale of the economic collapse is disturbing.
The National Institute for Economic and Social Research has been calling this a “depression” rather than a recession for some time – these figures surely now underline such a description.
A brief look at the figures beneath the headline figure of a 0.4pc fall reveals that almost all parts of the economy – from industry and manufacturing to services to construction to transport suffered significant contractions. Only the government managed to keep its economic output from falling, stagnating during the quarter thanks to extra health spending (swine flu-related I wonder?).
The GDP fall, as you may have seen elsewhere, means that this is now the longest technical recession since at least 1955 (and most probably since the 1930s, though the ONS doesn’t have figures on this) at six quarters, or a year and a half, long.
The late 1970s/early 1980s slump was deeper, but was not a long uninterrupted period of economic output falls.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...
Oh my.
Labour Party bankrupts the UK, Islamifies it and destroys the economy. If the Romans had not built their roads and water system it would be even worse.
ping
Haven’t there been several posts in the last few days telling us the UK was already on the road to recovery ???
In English English, “the City” means the financial district in London. Translate it as “Wall Street.”
Sorry, folks, but a 0.4% annualized decline in GDP for a single quarter is not what makes a depression.
It may be the latest result in a long recession, but our Great Depression saw a decline in real GDP of nearly 27% from peak to trough.
Looking at this link, it appears that cumulative GDP contraction in the UK so far for this recession is on the order of about 6%. Which is a pretty nasty recession, all in all.
But it isn’t a depression.
As well, compared to the 2.5% decline in the first quarter of this year in the UK, this result shows the recession easing substantially, although at least in the third quarter, it was not yet over.
Well....
Britain's economy has been overtaken by Italy for the first time in a decade and a half, after official figures showed that the UK is now in the longest recession in recorded history.
[snip]
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