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Great News for Europe from the BBC, come on Britain, time to follow!

The eurozone economy has emerged from recession after growing between July and September, figures have shown.

The 16 nations that use the euro collectively grew 0.4%, after shrinking by 0.2% between April and June.

The French and German economies both grew for a second consecutive quarter, confirming the eurozone’s two largest economies are out of recession.

However, both France and Germany grew by less than expected, a sign of how tentative signs of recovery remain.

The European Union as a whole – which includes non-eurozone countries such as the UK and Sweden – also emerged from recession, growing 0.2% in the third quarter.

Germany’s economy grew by 0.7% in the quarter, while France grew by 0.3%. Both economies and Japan ended year-long contractions in the second quarter of the year, while the US has since joined them after its economy grew in the third quarter.

However, the UK remains in recession, having contracted by 0.4% between July and September.

The UK, Europe’s second largest economy, has now contracted for six consecutive quarters, the first time this has happened since quarterly figures were first recorded in 1955.

Full story – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8358227.stm

The Bank of England’s rate-setters have decided to pump another £50bn of new money into the economy in their programme of quantitative easing.

It will take their total spending to £175bn, unexpectedly going over the £150bn set aside by the chancellor.

In a statement, they said that the UK recession “appears to have been deeper than previously thought”.

The rate-setters also decided to keep interest rates unchanged at their historic low of 0.5% for a fifth month.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8187360.stm

Another report on the economy from BBC News:

A leading think-tank is predicting it may take another five years for income per head to return to the level it was before the recession hit in early 2008.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) sees total UK GDP falling 4.3% in 2009 before growing 1% in 2010 and 1.8% in 2011.

This echoes earlier NIESR forecasts but suggests a slower rate of recovery.

NIESR expects government borrowing to hit £165.7bn this year, less than the £175bn the government predicts.

The research body sees income per head – GDP per capita – taking until March 2014 to return to the level it was in the first quarter of 2008, when the recession kicked in.

Full Story

According to this news article from the BBC web site the worst of the recession is over:

The worst of the UK’s recession is over, according to the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) business group, but talk of a recovery is premature.

Its report, based on a survey of 5,600 companies, found there had been “welcome progress” in confidence levels between April and June.

But the BCC is still predicting that unemployment will reach 3.2 million by the middle of 2010.

It warned that the increase in confidence was fragile.

So we are not out of the woods just yet but it’s certainly a good sign.  Finance will remain difficult to get unless you use guarantor loans from companies like FLM Loans.  Remember though, cover yourself with something like Income Protection Insurance just to be safe!