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Britain in recession for first time since 1991

AFP,London
Britain is in recession for the first time since 1991, official data showed yesterday, triggering a plea from Prime Minister Gordon Brown for renewed international help to tackle the financial crisis.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that gross domestic product (GDP) had shrunk by 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared with the previous threemonth period, when it contracted by 0.6 percent.
The generally-used technical definition of a recession is two quarters running of negative economic growth.
The figure for the final quarter of 2008 showed the biggest fall in GDI’since 1980.
Brown said on Friday he was using "every weapon at our disposal" to fight the economic crisis.
"But we need the international co-operation as well," he told BBC radio.
Friday's data sent the British pound sliding to a 23-year low versus the dollar and Ixindon's FTSE 100 index of top shares slid under 4,000
points.
Analysts warned of a long journey ahead before the British economy recovered.
"Our current forecast is for UK GDP to contract by 2.9 percent in 2009, with declines in output occurring through all four quarters," said Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight.
"This would be the sharpest
contraction since World War II. Furthermore, we see GDP only flat overall in 2010 as recovery develops very gradually."
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The British economy grew b 0.7 percent in 2008, the slow est annual rate since 1992, th ONS said on Friday.
Britain joins the Unite States, the eurozone an Japan in recession as th global economy struggles t recover from the credit crisi fallout.
Germany on Wednesda said it would suffer its wors recession since World War 1 this year, with half a millioi more people in Europe' biggest economy expected ti lose their jobs.
In Britain, the unemploy ment rate has jumped to ; decade-high 6.1 percent witl nearly two million out of worl as international groups sue! as Nissan have slashed loca jobs and several retailers hav< collapsed.
Banks have also cut jobs aj they continue to be bailed oui by the government.
At the same time, the ONJ said Britain's public finances worsened last month to show a record deficit of 44.2 billion pounds (48 billion euros, 61 billion dollars) after the state bailout of Royal Bank ol Scotland.
In a bid to stave off a deep recession, the Bank of England (BoE) has slashed British interest rates to an all-time low of 1.5 percent.
However tumbling borrowing costs have deterred foreign investment, severely hurting the pound, which this week also struck an all-time low against the yen and has reached near-parity with the euro.
BoE policymakers earlier this month voted 8-1 to cut interest rates by half a percentage point to the lowest level since the central bank's formationin 1694.