GDP

Government borrowing rose by a record £90bn in the last financial year, according to figures released today.

Gross domestic product (GDP) tumbled by 1.5% in the final quarter of 2008, figures show, putting the UK into an official recession.

The Japanese economy is shrinking at a faster-than-expected rate, new figures have revealed, as the country battles against the economic downturn.

The UK economy will only start to recover in 2010 with economic output forecast to fall by more than 1% in 2009, according to Chancellor Alistair Darling.

Japan, the world's second largest economy, plunged into its first recession since 2001 today after its GDP dipped by 0.1% in the third quarter.

The UK's economic output fell by 0.5% during the third quarter of 2008 in the first quarter of negative growth since 1992.

The Chinese economy recorded only single-digit growth for the first time in four years in Q3, as the global credit crisis begins to have an effect on the burgeoning Asian region.

The UK will begin its climb out of what has been a "shallow" recession early next year with GDP growth hitting near-trend rates by the end of 2009, according to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

The US economy grew at 3.3% annually in the second quarter of 2008, beating estimates of 1.9%, according to the Commerce Department.

The UK economy failed to grow during the second quarter of 2008, making a recession appear increasingly likely.