The UK economy has entered into recession and no one can be sure when an upturn will come or how deep the recession will be. Concerns over the economic crisis are now top of the consumer’s agenda, trumping all other reasons to worry.

Consumer opinion is as varied and mixed as expert opinion: will it be decades before we return to pre-recessionary times, or is it a matter of months?

We live in a world of increasing interdependency, politically, socially and economically, and while this can provide some degree of stability, it has also led to a fundamental misunderstanding of risk and uncertainty.

The UK economy has entered into recession and no one can be sure when an upturn will come or how deep the recession will be. Concerns over the economic crisis are now top of the consumer’s agenda, trumping all other reasons to worry.

Consumer opinion is as varied and mixed as expert opinion: will it be decades before we return to pre-recessionary times, or is it a matter of months?

We live in a world of increasing interdependency, politically, socially and economically, and while this can provide some degree of stability, it has also led to a fundamental misunderstanding of risk and uncertainty.

Both consumers and financial experts have failed to understand the risks faced by economies in an increasingly interdependent world. Banks believed they were operating on safe ground and consumers assumed the banks knew what they were doing when they lent them money.

Well, that was then and this is now.

According to Mintel’s exclusive consumer research for this report, more than two in five adults now claim to have been personally impacted by the recession. Moreover, another 39% know someone who has been affected. Clearly, the effects of the current downturn are already widespread.

British Lifestyles 2009 reviews how the recession is impacting on consumer markets and forecasts its likely longer-term effects to 2014. The report considers which markets have been winners and losers over the past decade and what has driven change in the main market sectors.

But this year’s issue delves deeper into the impact of the recession, focusing on the causes and consequences of consumer economic fears. Where will the consumer’s axe fall, and what has driven consumer confidence to drop so precipitously and so rapidly in this recession compared to the last? What role, for example, did the media play in driving confidence down?