LONDON (AP) -- Britain's economy will shrink by 1.5 percent next year and unemployment could reach 2.5 million in 2010, up from the current 1.8 million, a leading London think tank predicted Monday.
However, the National Institute of Social and Economic Research said that Britain's Treasury could curb the downturn through increased spending.
It forecast that a 30 billion pound ($45 billion) government package of tax cuts and higher government spending would improve growth by 1 percentage point, making the overall economic contraction in 2009 just 0.5 percent.
British Treasury head Alistair Darling was due later Monday to announce economic measures to help the economy.
"A coordinated fiscal expansion would significantly lessen the pain of the current recession," the report said.
