New figures have ended expectations that the British economy might be emerging from recession. Instead of showing an improvement as had been predicted, the economy shrank in the three months to the end of September. It makes this the longest recession in Britain since records began more than half a century ago. Lucy Hooker has this report. Economists had predicted a small rise in Britain’s output for the third quarter of the year. But hopes of an end to the recession were dashed with figures showing the value of goods and services sold fell by a little under a half percent between July and September. By contrast, France, Germany and Japan have all returned to growth already in the second quarter while America's economy shrank only very slightly over the summer. But Britain suffered badly both from the problems in the financial sector and the housing price bubble.