The UK is heading for a recession in the second half of this year, according to a forecast yesterday from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the first international body to issue such a warning.

While a growing number of private sector economists now think it likely that at least a technical recession - two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product growth - will occur in the UK over the next 12-18 months, the OECD is the first among international groups to make that call.