[mywittyname]

> But that's not receding, that's has receded.

A recession is past tense. One can speculate that we are in a recession, but it's not feasible to collect all the information necessary to make that determination in real time. The best one can do is say, "a recession started six months ago, and I think the situation is better/the same/worse."

[OJFord]

Yes but 'has receded' is present perfect. My point was that the situation described was that of a time after a recession that had ended.