UK economy 'set to shrink faster'

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has revised down its forecast for the UK economy in 2009.

It warns that the UK is in "a sharp recession" with output set to contract by 4.3% in 2009, worse than its previous forecast of a 3.7% fall.

The OECD predicts zero growth in the UK economy in 2010 and says the UK budget deficit will hit 14% of GDP next year.

Its UK forecasts are worse than those the Treasury made during the Budget.

However, a number of independent economic forecasters, including the National Institute for Social and Economic Research, have suggested that the recession is bottoming out in the UK.

On average, independent forecasts are projecting the UK economy to contract by 3.7% in 2009, close to the chancellor's forecast of -3.5%.

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this blew my mind

It estimates that even if the UK reduces government borrowing by 1% of GDP per year for the next seven years, it will still have a gross debt-to-GDP ratio of 125% by 2017, one of the largest in the OECD.

A gross debt-to-GDP ration of %125 !

Maybe an economist can explain to me what this means exactly because it sure doesn't sound good.

The only way I see countries getting out of this problem is if they usher in a new financial system to sweep all these bad numbers under the rug. Or, they superglue new regulations and bad investments onto the pyramid so that it can topple at a later date while keeping everyone paying for their clusterf****.