A survey conducted by The British Chambers of Commerce have found that the nations’ economy is in the midst of a “frightening deterioration”, with December’s High Street numbers proving the worst since the body began monitoring them in 1989.

The BCC went on to predict that official government figures set to be released on January 23rd will confirm that the British economy has entered a recession following six months of negative growth, according to the BBC.

In addition, the British Retail Consortium has reported that December’s like-for-like sales on both the High Street and online were down 3.3 per cent on the same period in 2007, whilst total sales were down 1.4 per cent – the worst results since it began monitoring retail activity in 1995.

“Non-food retailers had a torrid December despite a blizzard of promotions and deals, which would have hit margins,” the BRC's director general Stephen Robertson stated. “Many hard-pressed customers couldn't be seduced into spending.”

The BCC added: “It is clear that the UK economy is facing a very serious recession, and the downturn is deepening at an alarming pace. The results highlight a frightening deterioration in the UK economic situation.

“These are truly awful results with the scale and speed of the economic decline happening at an unprecedented rate. The sheer scale of this comes as a surprise to many of us. In terms of GDP, this recession is worse than in the 1990s.”

The firm added that its latest report had “no positive features”, and went on to predict that the UK economy will shrink by up to 2.4 per cent this year.