The word on the street is we’re in recession

There has been much discussion, not least on this blog, on whether the UK has been in recession or not over the past year or so.

If recession is technically defined as two quarters of declining GDP that has not been the case – although I think that will change soon.

But, this is a definition only suited to pedants because GDP does not, in a very great many ways, reflect the lived reality of most people. The think tank More In Common has apparently addressed the issue by asking people about what they think in answer to the question ‘Is the UK in recession?” I cannot find the work on their website, but the FT published the data last week, producing this chart:

Near enough two-thirds of people think the UK is in recession.

Less than a quarter think it is not.

Plot those choices on a decile of income chart and I bet you can imagine what the distribution would be.

So, am I right to say that the UK has been in recession and that this will get worse? I think so. The economics of walking about matters – and the word on the street is we’re in recession.