The UK economy may contract at the fastest pace since 1990 in the current quarter as the recession intensifies, the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (Niesr) said.

Gross domestic product fell 1 percent in the three months through November and will probably plunge more than that in the last three months of the year, the London-based institute, whose clients include the central bank, said in a statement yesterday. The economy last shrank at such a speed in the third quarter of 1990, when it contracted 1.2 percent.

"The figures make clear that the rate of output decline is accelerating," Niesr said in a statement.

"The problem that" the government "needs to address very urgently is the availability of bank credit; further interest-rate reductions are unlikely to have much effect."

Bank of England policymaker Andrew Sentance said on Tuesday that the recession will likely be as long and deep as any since the 1970s. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has cut taxes and pledged 50 billion pounds in a bank rescue to bolster the economy, while the central bank has reduced the key interest rate to 2 percent, the lowest since 1951.