US retail sales data deepens year-end gloom

Christmas retail sales plunged in the United States, a poll showed yesterday, as Japan reported record cuts in production in November in a gloomy run-up to 2009 for the world economy.
A leading think tank in London also forecast the British economy will shrink by 2.9 percent next year in the biggest contraction since the end of World War II as retailers slashed prices in a bid to boost post-Christmas sales.
US retail sales dropped by up to eight percent for the traditional November-December shopping period, making it one of the worst holiday shopping periods in decades, the MasterCard Inc.'s SpendingPulse unit said in a report.