Almost two-thirds of Britons expect the UK to enter a recession this year, with just a fifth confident that one will be avoided.

The gloomy view was uncovered by research from Financial Planner and wealth manager Quilter undertaken last month.

The latest data, published by the Office for National Statistics before the research was undertaken, showed that UK GDP fell by 0.1% in the third quarter of 2023. However on Friday it was revealed that GDP rose by 0.3% in November, slightly higher than expected.

But that still left the UK teetering on the brink of falling into a technical recession at the end of the year. A technical recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

The economy declined between July and September, according to ONS figures. GDP would need to be fractionally below zero in December in order for the economy to have shrunk between October and December as well, leading to two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

At the weekend accountants BDO predicted that UK GDP growth will remain stagnant in the coming months because of higher borrowing costs and inflation.

Quilter's research found that a third of Brits said that their current finances and earnings would not be sufficient to allow them to manage their daily expenses in the event of a recession.

Sue Loveridge, Financial Planner at Quilter, said: “The UK economy has faced an incredibly challenging few years and the strain is now taking a real toll on people’s finances. The UK barely scraped by without a recession in 2023, and our latest research reveals the majority of Brits expect 2024 to have an even worse fate.”

She pointed out that though the prospect of a recession is daunting, it is not a done deal and for now there is still a chance that the UK will avoid one.

She said: “Inflation is heading in the right direction and interest rates are widely expected to start to fall this year. We are already seeing mortgage rates fall which should ease the pressure on household finances and we can expect this to continue should the Bank of England opt to reduce rates later in the year.”

Meanwhile the Chancellor’s 2% National Insurance cut has come into effect which will see the average UK worker taking home an additional £447.86 a year. And with an election looming, Ms Loveridge said Jeremy Hunt may look to curry favour via additional tax giveaways during his spring Budget.

• The research was conducted by YouGov. Total sample size was 2,001 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 11-12 December 2023.  The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).