UK ‘to escape recession’ – here’s what it means for families

UK growth will remain close to zero throughout 2023, says Niesr

Britain will narrowly avoid a recession this year, but there will be little respite for under-pressure families – with around 7 million households expected to struggle to pay energy and food bills, according to an economic think tank.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) has forecast that the UK will swerve a technical recession – as defined by two or more quarters of falling gross domestic product (GDP) in a row – not just in the final three months of 2022, but also throughout 2023.

It is a more optimistic outlook for the UK economy than that offered by the Bank of England last week, which predicted a shallower but still protracted recession, as well as a recent gloomy prediction from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which saw Britain being the only major economy to suffer a contraction this year.