ALASTAIR Thomson is Dean of Teesside University's business school. He said: "There are still risks ahead before we can say we are firmly on a consistent growth path.

"There are worries over whether the Euro will survive and as much of the UK economy nowadays is centred on Europe that would impact on us and all bets would be off.

"We are also still very indebted as an economy, Government debt levels are high and levels of personal debt remain high.

"The latest growth figures have been slightly flattered by some one-off factors such as the Olympics, but we are still moving in the right direction.

"I see it a little bit like getting the periscope up above the water to have a look around.

"If see we a destroyer bearing down on us we could go back down under the water again.

"My view is that the economy will grow gently over the next couple of years in the half a per cent to one and-a-half per cent range.

"But I cannot see it being any better than that. We will be talking about small positive figures thats all. I wouldn't like to go much further than that at the moment."