Official figures have confirmed that the British economy shrank by 1.5% in the fourth quarter of 2008, putting the country in recession.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said gross domestic product (GDP) had shrunk by 1.5% compared with the third quarter of 2008 when it contracted by 0.7%.
The generally-used technical definition of a recession is two quarters running of negative economic growth.
Britain is mired in recession for the first time since 1991, while the GDP figure for the final quarter of 2008 shows the biggest fall since 1980.
Household spending sank by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, compared with a 0.2% drop in the previous three months. On an annual basis, British GDP sank by 1.9% during the fourth quarter compared with the October-December period in 2007.
