The UK is officially in recession after the economy saw its worst output performance since 1980 in the final three months of 2008, official figures revealed today.
The economy shrank by 1.5% in the fourth quarter of last year - worse than the declines seen in the recession of the early 1990s and the biggest fall in more than 28 years, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Today's estimated fall in quarter-on-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) comes after a 0.6% decline in the previous three months - a ''technical'' recession, as defined by two successive quarters of negative output.
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