Britain's longest double-dip recession since the Second World War will be confirmed in official figures out later.
Gross domestic product (GDP) - a broad measure for the total economy - is forecast to have shrunk by around 0.2% between April and June in its third quarter in a row of contraction.
That would mark the longest double-dip recession since quarterly records began in 1955.
The last double-dip recession was in the 1970s, when the economy was hamstrung amid soaring oil prices and a miners' strike, but that only lasted two quarters.
The latest decline is set to have been worsened by the extra bank holiday surrounding the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and record rainfall in April and June.
Recent estimates from the Bank of England said the celebrations could wipe up to 0.5% from output, while its governor Sir Mervyn King has warned the special events including the Jubilee and the Olympics will skew figures this year.
Today's figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) will be a preliminary estimate and be subject to revision.
The economy entered a technical recession in the first quarter of the year, with GDP declining 0.3%, following a 0.4% drop in the final quarter of 2011.
This followed its five quarters in a row of falls in 2008 and 2009 from which the economy has not fully recovered.
