Recession gloom for 2009?
Updated on 05 January 2009
On the first working day of 2009, Channel 4 News asks a panel of experts for their economic predictions for the coming 12 months.
In 2008 house prices in the UK fell by 16.2 per cent - but it got much harder to get a mortgage.
Meanwhile, the number of retailers going bust leapt by 21 per cent, including high-profile casualties like Woolworths.
Over the same period the FTSE fell a massive 21 per cent, and the number of people claiming benefit rose by 35 per cent.
Channel 4 News asked Brendan Barber of the TUC, Ray Boulger of John Charcol mortgage brokers, and Jeremy Batstone-Carr from Charles Stanley stockbrokers, for their predictions for the year ahead.
