It's Official - Google says the Recession is over!

Google on Thursday declared the worst of the recession over and paved the way for a return to heavy spending on expansion as it reported a surprisingly strong 8 per cent jump in net revenues in its latest quarter.

Google has reported an 8 percent jump in revenues. The optimism reflected what the company said was an across-the-board recovery in online advertising, with even the struggling financial services sector showing a return to growth.

While search engine advertising has held up better than most other forms of online media in the downturn, Eric Schmidt, chief executive, said the advertising revival appeared to have spread across the internet more broadly.

The news pushed the company's shares up 3 per cent in after-market trading, to $544, capping a run that has seen the shares climb 120 per cent from the bottom late last year.

The figures for the three months to the end of September point to a return to sequential quarterly growth for the search giant after two periods in which its revenues were either flat or down from the preceding quarter, the first time in its 10-year history it had been through such a decline. Investors often pay close attention to sequential quarterly comparisons for high-growth companies since they provide a more immediate view of the growth trajectory.

Drawing a clear line after the downturn, Mr Schmidt praised the company's management team for holding down costs in recent quarters but said the time had come for a return to the company's earlier ambitious expansion path.