Britain’s economy entered a recession, for the first time since 1991, officials from the Office for National Statistics say as the economy shrank for the last two quarters of last year - hitting the formal definition of contractionary economy.

A one and a half per cent drop in the last quarter of 2008 marked the largest fall since 1980 - additionally, this week marks the lowest point the pound has traded in over 20 years, and a report by Global Insight, a body of professional economists, suggests that the British economy is likely to fall nearly 3 per cent more in 2009 as legislators and businesspeople fight a global recession.

Finally, the unemployment rate in Britain rose to over 6 per cent accounting for nearly 2 million of those within the unemployment lists.

Gordon Brown in an interview Friday, said that the U.K. would need the help of other countries to exit this financial crisis, saying that the British government and the Bank of England were doing all they could - but it was insufficient to stabilize the economy; a consensus being seen in many international government’s at this time.

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