NEW YORK / LONDON, Nov 14: Europe officially fell into recession on Friday and the US economy suffered further blows as world leaders headed to Washington to address the worst financial crisis in 80 years.

Leaders of the world’s 20 richest nations are not expected to make any breakthroughs at the meeting in the US capital, given the absence of US President-elect Barack Obama, whose involvement will be key to any global initiatives.

The financial crisis continues to wreak havoc on the world’s major economies, with official data showing the 15-nation euro zone economy had shrunk by 0.2 per cent for the second quarter in a row, meaning it technically is in recession.

The United States is probably already in recession, most economists agree, but official data showing that will not come out until January.

“Frankly, we at Dow are looking at an ’09 that looks like a pretty protracted global recession, probably going into 2010,” Andrew Liveris, the chief executive of Dow Chemical Co, the largest US chemical maker, told Reuters.

Signs for the US economy worsened on Friday. Retail sales fell a record 2.8 per cent in October, according to government data, the biggest decline since comparable numbers were first calculated in 1992. Freddie Mac, the second-largest provider of US home loan financing, reported a $25 billion quarterly loss as the housing slump worsened.—Reuters