Britain’s economy contracted  unexpectedly in the third quarter of this year, squashing hopes  of an end to the recession and instead making the current  recession the longest on record, official data showed on Friday.  The Office for National Statistics’ data will be closely eyed by the Bank of England, which meets on Nov. 4-5 to decide whether to expand its 175 billion pound quantitative easing scheme.

KEY FIGURES FOR PRELIMINARY Q2 GDP

                         Q3 09    Q2 09         FCAST

    % QQ          -0.4    -0.6 (-0.6)     +0.2   

    % YY            -5.2    -5.5 (-5.5)     -4.6

Britain’s economy has now contracted for six successive quarters, the longest unbroken string of quarterly declines in GDP since records began in 1955.

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