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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| We will fight recession - Brown | We will fight recession - Brown |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| The government will fight the recession with "every weapon at its disposal", Gordon Brown has said. | The government will fight the recession with "every weapon at its disposal", Gordon Brown has said. |
| Speaking ahead of figures set to show the economy is officially shrinking, Mr Brown said it was a "different" recession from previous ones. | Speaking ahead of figures set to show the economy is officially shrinking, Mr Brown said it was a "different" recession from previous ones. |
| He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme its length would depend on the effectiveness of global co-operation. | He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme its length would depend on the effectiveness of global co-operation. |
| Mr Brown dismissed suggestions by the Conservatives that the UK might require financial support from the IMF. | Mr Brown dismissed suggestions by the Conservatives that the UK might require financial support from the IMF. |
| 'Difficult times' | |
| Figures published on Friday are expected to show the UK economy contracted in each of the last two quarters of 2008 - the official definition of a recession. | |
| Unemployment has been rising sharply with the total number of people out of work now at its highest level since 1997. | |
| This is a completely different kind of event Gordon Brown | |
| The prime minister said many other leading economies, including the US, were already in recession and the policies required to deal with it were totally different than in the past. | |
| "Every recession in the last sixty years in Britain has been caused by inflation and has been domestically generated," he said. "This is a completely different kind of event. This resulted from a global banking crisis." | |
| Mr Brown declined to say how long he thought the recession would last, saying this would depend on how the international community dealt with the crisis. | |
| He defended the government's own response, saying it had acted quickly to safeguard the banking system from collapse, provide support for businesses and homeowners and was now doing everything it could to stimulate bank lending. | |
| Despite these "most difficult times", the prime minister said the "building blocks" for economic recovery were in place. | |
| He described suggestions by Tory leader David Cameron that the UK's perilous financial position meant it could ultimately be forced to go to the International Monetary Fund for help, as happened during the last Labour government in 1976, as "ridiculous". | |
| The government was being "tested" by the economic problems, he added, but he believed it had the right solutions. |