[B]UK Retail Sales[/B] headline the economic calendar in European hours, with expectations calling for a -0.4% drop through February to bring the annual growth rate to 2.5%, down from 3.6% in the preceding month. Rising unemployment is likely to weigh on disposable incomes, pressuring spending lower. Private consumption is the largest component of overall economic growth, so weakness here bodes ill for Britain’s ability to climb out of the current downturn. Indeed, the IMF has predicted that this time around the UK will see the worst recession among the G7 nations. A final revision of fourth-quarter GDP figures later this week is set to show that the economy shrank -1.5% in the three months to December 2008, the most in nearly three decades.