Latest official growth figures are expected to pile more pressure on Gordon Brown by revealing signs of a sharp slowdown in the economy.
The pace of the UK's economic slowdown will be revealed when the Office for National Statistics publishes results for the second quarter of this year.
Most experts forecast they will show the economy expanded by just 0.2% over the three-month period.
If the predictions are correct, it would be the UK's slowest pace of growth since the first three months of 2005.
The current woes threaten a record of 63 consecutive quarters of growth since the UK's gross domestic product last shrank, between April and June 1992.
Recent surveys say the UK service, manufacturing and construction sectors all contracted during June, while retail sales fell at their fastest rate since records began in 1986.
However, NIESR forecasts that the UK will escape a recession, which is defined as two consecutive three-month periods where the economy shrinks.
The bleak economic outlook has damaged the reputation of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is facing Opposition calls for a general election following the shock loss of the Glasgow East by-election to the Scottish National Party.
Fresh evidence that the economy is heading for recession would do nothing to silence calls for him to be replaced from members of the Labour party alarmed about its deepening unpopularity.
Source:http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/25072008/140/uk-stats-set-show-slowdown.html
