Triple dip recession: Fears grow for UK economy as recovery slams into reverse 

 Britain is halfway to being back in recession after economy contracts by worse-than-expected 0.3%

Economic gloom: Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne

 Britain is heading for a triple dip recession after the economic recovery slammed into reverse.

Figures out today showed the economy contracted by a worse-than-expected 0.3%.
The fall in gross domestic product (GDP) between October and December compares with 0.9% growth in the third quarter.
GDP - a broad measure for the total economy - would have to contract again this quarter for the UK to be back in recession, but hopes of a rebound are starting to fade after a snow-hit start to 2013.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said economic output as a whole remained flat in 2012.
The fourth-quarter drop is worse than expected, with most economists forecasting a drop of 0.1%.
It deals a blow to recovery hopes after the UK bounced back from the longest double-dip recession since the 1950s in the third quarter.
But the rebound was largely driven by one-off factors, such as the Olympics, and as the economy clawed back activity lost during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee holiday, which has skewed quarter-on-quarter changes in activity, the ONS said.
-Ben Rankin,  Fri 25th Jan 2013, the Mirror
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/triple-dip-recession-fears-grow-1554429