Britain is likely to be back in a recession, according to international forecasters.
A recession is typically defined as two successive quarters of negative economic growth.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said in its latest interim assessment of the global economy that the UK's GDP has likely regressed for two straight quarters.
It estimated the UK economy retracted by 1.2% in the last quarter of 2011 and by 0.4% in the first quarter of 2012.
It also predicted the economy would grow by 0.5% in the second quarter of 2012.
But that remains well below the G7 average, predicted to be around 1.9% growth in the second quarter of 2012 - with the US estimated to grow at 2.8%, Canada at 2.5% and Germany by 1.5%.