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courtesy of the telegraph.
Figures to be published by the Office of National Statistics are expected to show the economy shrinking in the second quarter of 2011 - a period which included bank holidays for Easter and the Royal wedding.
The first quarter of the year saw growth coming in at 0.5 per cent - with ministers braced for a fall to around 0.2 per cent for the second quarter, piling the pressure on the coalition as it seeks to deliver its programme of public spending cuts.
George Osborne, the Chancellor, uses an article in The Sunday Telegraph to vow the government will "stick to our plan" of deficit reduction and to "go for growth"
He says more must be done to stop businesses being "weighed down" in red tape. "When we're faced with choices in government, we should always choose growth," he argues.
Ministers will this week seek to ease pressure on the crucial retail sector by announcing a major simplification of the various laws governing the sale of "age-restricted" goods.
They will outline plans to simplify the current regime which sees more than 20 separate pieces of legislation affecting what can and cannot be sold to different age groups.
In total almost three-quarters of the current regulations are set to be done away with altogether while others will be combined.
For example, it is currently an offence to sell most fireworks to people under the age of 18, while "caps" for toy guns can be sold to 16 year-olds.
Christmas crackers cannot be sold to those under 16, while it is also illegal to sell most knives - including kitchen knives - to anyone under 18.
Computer games have age restrictions of 12 and 15 while the those over 17 can buy cross bows and air rifles. Retailers are also banned from selling aerosol paints party poppers, liquor chocolates and petrol to minors.
Laws governing the sale of "poisons" are also likely to be changed or done away with because they currently apply to retailers who sell common household cleaning products.
A coalition source said: "There will not be a free for all in terms of selling dangerous goods to young people - far from it - but there is an urgent need for the current complexity of laws and regulations to be greatly simplified."
The blitz will be trumpeted by ministers as the first concrete results from the coalition's 'Red Tape Challenge', launched by David Cameron in April, which invited businesses to use a website to demand changes to burdensome regulations.
Ministers see the retail sector as crucial in helping the economy recover. Last month retail sales rose 0.7 per cent but this was on the back of heavy discounting by leading stores.