Britain is officially in recession with shock figures confirming
the worst quarterly contraction since 1980.
Experts said the figure was far worse than expected.
The economy shrunk by 1.5% in the final three months of 2008.
That is the worst performance in more than 28 years, according to the Office for National Statistics.
But retail sales grew by a shock 1.6% in December.
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The last time Britain was in recession was in 1991.
And the last time GDP suffered a bigger fall quarter-on-quarter was between April and June 1980, when the economy was in a deep downturn.
