Daily View: Exiting the recession

Clare Spencer|09:25 UK time, Wednesday, 27 January 2010

car An estimate from the Office of National Statistics said the economy grew by 0.1% in the final quarter of 2009, showing we've exited the recession. Commentators consider who will benefit from this news.

Sean O'Grady in the Independent says the "feeble" results are nothing to celebrate:

"The uncomfortable question thrown up by yesterday's feeble figures is this: if cutting VAT, running a £174bn budget deficit, and having the Bank of England slash rates to 0.5 per cent and print £200bn won't work, what will?"

Alex Brummer in the Daily Mail calls the news a damp squib and predicts that the next three months of statistics could reveal another downturn:

"The truth is that in the final months of 2009, buyers of big ticket items such as fridges and flat screen televisions brought their purchases forward to avoid the VAT rise. This means that high street sales will dramatically lose momentum in the current quarter - even if the downturn might be softened because retailers such as Tesco did not immediately pass on the tax rise."

Simon Heffer in the Telegraph points the finger of blame for the recession and it's not at the US:

"Mr Brown is culpable for two reasons, and they ought to be engraved on his tombstone. First, his re-regulation of banking in 1997 left that sector free to behave in the idiotic way that had banks sending for taxpayer bail-outs in the autumn of 2008. Second, however, he provided the means for banks to be idiotic."

The Guardian editorial called the growth "an achievement as thin as a statistical Rizla" but credited the government's choices for the success:

"Amid the overall disappointment of yesterday's numbers, the Treasury can find vindication for much of its action in the small print. It revealed that public expenditure had underpinned such growth as there was, and that what the statisticians still quaintly label the "motor trade" had at last steered round the corner."

The Times editorial prepares for politicians using the recovery to help their election campaigns:

"Politicians are asking a lot when they demand electoral reward for recovery. The memory of the recession is too recent and, for many, not yet a memory at all. For some, its effect may still lie in the future. No credible politician can claim that the downswing is an accident but the upswing is all his doing, especially when he has confidently claimed to have abolished such swings. The argument needs to move, from credit for recovery, to getting the country back in credit."

The Independent editorial says the "meagre" growth isn't good for either Labour or the Conservatives:

"It also seems possible that without government measures such as the car scrappage scheme and the VAT cut, the second of which the Conservatives vociferously opposed, Britain might have seen no economic expansion at all in 2009. Weak growth poses difficult questions not only regarding Mr Brown's record, but also David Cameron's judgement."

Blogging politicians have been teasing each other. Labour MP Greg Pope says in his blog the Tories are 'gutted' we're out of e recession:

"For sheer curmudgeonliness cast a glance over at ConservativeHome where the growth figures are described with magisterial meanness as 'measly'."

Conservative MP John Redwood blogs a pessimistic message:

"All that well orchestrated hype, all those well honed briefings concerning the end of the recession, brought forth a mouse of a recovery, the smallest margin possible. Let's hope the figures are not revised downwards."

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