UK GDP will contract by 3.5% this year, the chancellor said, as government borrowing balloons to £175bn, following the bailout of the banking system.

However, Darling predicted that the recession would be short-lived with growth returning at the end of the year and, to jeers in the House Commons, predicted that by 2012, we would return to growth of 3.5%.

Many were more sceptical. Nicholas Mockett, the print and packaging expert at Europa Partners, said: "I don’t know why the government is saying that. It may be trying to talk up the economy but there is little possibility of growth by the end of the year."

To help mitigate the massive shortfall in public finances, Darling announced plans to increase that highest tax bracket to 50% for those earning over £150,000. In addition there were 2% increases in tobacco and alcohol duty, and a 2p rise in fuel tax.

Measures to aid the unemployed were also unveiled with an increase in the level of statutory redundancy pay to £380 and a £260m allocation of new money being allocated for training.

For business, the chancellor pledged further support to loss-making companies with an extension of the ability of loss-making companies to reclaim tax on profits made in the last three years to November 2010; as well as the doubling of capital allowances and a credit insurance scheme.

Marcus Clifford, of BPIF McInnes Corporate Finance, said: "Darling sadly missed a lot of measures that could have tangibly helped business owners, but the overriding issue for the government was to gain cash for the coffers."

However, many had feared that the government would be seeking to increase Capital Gains Tax or to raise Corporation Tax.

Paul Holohan, chief executive of Richmond Capital Partners said: "The absence of any movement in CGT is to be commended as this would in effect have been a tax on entrepreneurial activity."

See PrintWeek's live coverage of the Budget, as it happened, to read more details on the announcements and opinions from our panel of experts.