A recession is likely to descend on Britain within the next six to nine months, the British Chambers of Commerce warned on Monday. The national group, which represents local businesses, predicted that Britain would suffer from negative - or, at best, flat - GDP growth over the next two to three quarters, meaning that the country will very likely be in the midst of a recession, technically defined as two or more consecutive quarters of shrinkage, by the beginning of 2009. But, the chambers warned, the picture could be even more dire if the Bank of England doesn't cut interest rates as soon as possible in order to stimulate spending. The Monday publication of the BCC's quarterly economic forecast was aptly timed, with two more studies coming out Monday giving hard evidence of a looming recession. A leading London retail sales monitor, published by the British Retail Consortium, reported that sales growth in central London in July slowed to 6 percent year-on-year, compared to last year's 13 percent increase over 2006 for the same month. Clothing, footwear, homeware and other discretionary items were hit particularly hard by the “squeeze on household budgets,” it said. Also on Monday, property web site Rightmove said that house prices fell nearly 5 percent year-on-year in August. The fall was the fastest since the company launched its monthly survey six years ago. Rightmove said that the average asking price for homes had fallen by 2.3 percent - or 5,403 pounds ($1,0810)
