RECESSION could be good for business according to a global economics expert.

David Smith gave a talk at a sold-out Chamber of Commerce lunch last week during which he spoke about changes in business and the economy.

Around 120 leading names in commerce and politics attended the talk, entitled Imagine It, which was sponsored by advocates AO Hall.

‘Recessions are good for us on one level,’ said Mr Smith.

He used Procter and Gamble, Tesco, Burger King and Wikipedia as examples of businesses which started up during previous recessions.

Companies had to look at new innovations during this time.

‘Google took off when people wanted to get more responsive means of testing their advertising,’ he said.

‘They were a solution. They built a huge business off the back of this.’

Mr Smith talked about how trust was a big issue at the moment and yet had been so for the last 50 years.