Kevin Brown comments on the latest UK GDP figures

Kevin Brown, savings specialist at Scottish Friendly, comments:

These figures are a bitter pill to swallow for both households and businesses up and down the land. Not content with an inflation crisis, the country is now contending with failing growth. A healthy economy is the only factor which could prevent misery being piled on misery with inflation and interest rate increases.

With the inflation cat already out of the bag, interest rate rises are now only going to make the economic tight rope more difficult to balance upon. If this economic environment continues, then we can expect the very real prospect of unemployment beginning to increase as businesses batten down the hatches and prepare for the worst.

The issue now is who will offer a more confident message to families facing soaring cost of living rises and uncertainty over their job security. It is a tricky mix that will get worse before it gets better.

Anyone in a position to save should be saving into a rainy-day fund as the economic trouble is going to get worse before it gets better. Households able to save beyond this should really be looking beyond cash accounts as the real rates on these are still heavily negative with such high inflation levels.