The British economy is likely to shrink by 2.8 percent in 2009 amidst the ongoing global financial downturn, the European Commission (EC) said in a report on Monday.

Despite massive economic stimulus plans by the government, Britain's GDP growth will edge up by just 0.2 percent in 2010, the EC report said.

The country's unemployment rate will reach 8.1 percent in 2010, slightly lower than the estimated 8.2 percent in 2009, the report said.

Britain now faces an army of 1.8 million unemployed workers and the figure is forecast to soar above 2.8 million by the end of 2009, the report said.

The latest figures show that between June and November 2008, an average of 848 people lost their jobs every week in Britain.

In its report, the EC also forecast that Britain's budget deficit would rise to 9.5 percent of its GDP in fiscal year 2009-10 and then only ease back to 9.2 percent of GDP in fiscal 2010-11.

Consumer price inflation in Britain will average just 0.1 percent in 2009 and would rise to 1.1 percent in 2010, the report said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 20, 2009)