Digby Jones, the director general of the CBI, told the Liberal Democrat conference on Tuesday that British businessmen should not to talk themselves into a recession in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the US.

Jones dismissed talk of a global recession engulfing the economy, saying analysts should resist the "doom and gloom scenario". "We are living in uncertain times but let's not talk Britain into a recession," he said.

He argued that the official figures have yet to be released and other than those on manufacturing, none of the official indicators have spent successive quarters without growth - the usual definition of a recession.

Forum Response: Federation of Small Business

A spokesman from the Federation of Small Business told ePolitix.com:

"The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) agrees with Digby Jones that there is a danger of the country talking itself into recession. As the UK's largest small business organisation, we are confident that there will be a growth in the SME sector over the medium-term.

"We believe that as many as two million jobs will be transferred from larger organisations to SMEs over the next 10 years, so it would not be surprising if some of the redundancies recently announced were absorbed by small employers. In the short-term there are clearly some 'anxious' if not 'gloomy' months ahead but small firms are ideally placed to weather such difficulties."