We’re doing our best, insists George Osborne

CHANCELLOR George Osborne has claimed the UK is in a position to “weather the storm”, despite a report suggesting the country is already in recession.

With many analysts claiming the next growth figures will show Britain back in the red, the Chancellor said the UK government was doing everything it could.

He admitted problems in the eurozone had meant the UK was going to struggle, but said the independent Office of Budgetary Responsibility (OBR), which issues official forecasts, suggested the UK would avoid a recession.

His comments came after the Ernst & Young Item Club and the Centre for Economics and Business Research both said they believed GDP shrank in the final quarter of last year and would fall again in the first three months of 2012. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of contracting output.

They were also made following the warning by credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s that austerity measures alone – the Tory-Lib Dem coalition’s policy – were not working.

Mr Osborne said the OBR’s most recent predictions showed Britain would have a negative quarter of growth, but not go into recession.