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Britain's longest-ever recession finally over

The UK's longest and deepest recession finally came to an end in the last three months of 2009.

According to first estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), an 0.1 per cent expansion in the economy between October and December ended six straight quarters of shrinking output. That is well down on predictions by experts, who had forecast growth of 0.4 per cent.

Overall, the economy slumped 4.8 per cent last year, the biggest annual contraction since records began in 1949, and it has lost 6 per cent since the recession began in 2008.

It means the UK is the last of the major G7 economies to leave recession. Faint signs of green shoots may also ease the political pressure on Gordon Brown, who faces a general election within months.

During 18 months of recession brought on by the credit crunch and then financial crisis, public borrowing ballooned to an estimated £178 billion while output slumped 6 per cent.

This far exceeds the recession of the early 1990s and is the worst slump since Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher took office 30 years ago.

But nerves remain over the strength of the recovery, in particular the threat of a 'double-dip' recession as savage spending cuts loom and the Bank of England begins to move interest rates up from their current record low.