Think-tank expects low growth and more jobs lost

The UK economy will show “close to zero” growth this year following four years of “unprecedented” weakness, an influential think-tank has warned.
By The Newsroom
Published 5th May 2012, 07:00 BST

A report from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) also predicted that unemployment levels will rise to almost nine per cent by the end of 2012 doing “permanent damage to the UK’s productive capacity”.

However, NIESR said that it expected “more robust growth” of around two per cent next year and a sustained period of “above-potential growth” from 2014.

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It said that four years after the start of the recession, the economy was still well over four per cent below its pre-crisis peak.

The think-tank predicted that unemployment would remain elevated until 2013.