Britain never had a double-dip recession, says top economist Simon Ward - Telegraph.co.uk

The quarterly changes in non-oil GDP between the third quarter of 2011 and the third quarter of 2012 are now as follows: +0.6pc, -0.2pc, 0pc, -0.3pc and +1pc, Mr Ward notes. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

"The 0.3pc fall in the second quarter of last year was entirely due to an additional bank holiday so there was a genuine decline in only one quarter – the fourth quarter of 2011," Mr Ward said.

"The onshore economy, in other words, never "double dipped" in late 2011 / early 2012, in the conventionally-understood sense of recording successive quarterly contractions."

Mr Ward added that the contraction in the final three months of 2011 was caused by a squeeze on real incomes and spending from consumer price inflation spiking to 5.2pc in September 2011. Inflation has since fallen back to 2.7pc.

While the UK economy also contracted in the final quarter of 2012, recording a 0.1pc fall in non-oil GDP, the economist said this could be attributed to an unwinding of the boost given to the economy by the Olympics.

"Will the triple-dippers please acknowledge their mistake, or else make clear that their phantom recessions reflect weak North Sea production, bank holidays and the impossibility of hosting the Olympics every quarter?" he added.

Despite the revisions made by the ONS this morning, the economy remains 3.2pc smaller than its peak in the first quarter of 2008 and has grown just 3.4pc since the low in the second quarter of 2009.