Political artist Kaya Mar poses for photographs with his horsemeat scandal painting which depicts French President, Francois Hollande, and British Prime Minister, David Cameron, in London, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013. British authorities on Tuesday raided a slaughterhouse and a meat processing company suspected of selling horsemeat labeled as beef for kebabs and burgers, shutting them down temporarily and seizing all the meat found. Millions of burgers and frozen meals have been recalled around Europe and many accusations have been made, but so far it's not clear how horsemeat got introduced into so many beef products. French authorities have already pointed to an elaborate supply chain that involved Romanian butchers and Dutch and Cypriot traders that resulted in horsemeat disguised as beef being sold in meals like lasagne and moussaka to consumers around the continent. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
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Political artist Kaya Mar poses for photographs with his horsemeat scandal painting which depicts French President, Francois Hollande, and British Prime Minister, David Cameron, in London, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013. British authorities on Tuesday raided a slaughterhouse and a meat processing company suspected of selling horsemeat labeled as beef for kebabs and burgers, shutting them down temporarily and seizing all the meat found. Millions of burgers and frozen meals have been recalled around Europe and many accusations have been made, but so far it's not clear how horsemeat got introduced into so many beef products. French authorities have already pointed to an elaborate supply chain that involved Romanian butchers and Dutch and Cypriot traders that resulted in horsemeat disguised as beef being sold in meals like lasagne and moussaka to consumers around the continent. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
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FILE - In this Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010, file photo, Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner testifies before the House Financial Services Committee, about the state of the international Financial system, including international regulatory issues relevant to the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Geithner said the massive bill would accomplish its primary objective of building more safeguards against the kind of financial collapse that had cost millions of jobs and sent the country into the worst recession since the Great Depression. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
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FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009, file photo, from left, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chair Sheila Bair talk prior to President Barack Obama delivering remarks about the home mortgage crisis, at Dobson High School in Mesa, Ariz. Under Geithner, Treasury fell far short of the administration's goals of helping up to 9 million homeowners at risk of losing homes to foreclosure. Geithner's critics say he rejected suggestions that the programs require mortgage servicers to provide loan modifications. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
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FILE - In this Monday, March 30, 2009, file photo, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, left, followed by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, arrive in the Grand Foyer of the White House in Washington. The auto support effort was actually begun under the Bush administration but taken over and expanded by Obama and Geithner. Administration officials have said the effort saved more than a million jobs and came at a critical time when the economy was in severe crisis. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
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FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010, file photo, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on AIG. Geithner and the administration endured some of their heaviest criticism for giving government bailout support outside the banking system to insurance giant American International Group.(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
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FILE - In this Dec. 16, 2010, file photo Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington before the Congressional Oversight Panel hearing on TARP. President Barack Obama has saluted the outgoing Timothy Geithner as one of the best U.S. Treasury secretaries ever. But while some say Geithner deserves credit for helping steady the banking system and restore investor confidence, his critics believe Geithner's policies consistently favored banking interests over ordinary Americans. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
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FILE - In this Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012 file photo, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks during a news conference at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington. Federal Reserve policymakers expressed broad support in December 2012 for the Fed's plan to buy bonds to support the U.S. economy. But they differed over how long to keep buying bonds to drive down long-term interest rates. Minutes of the Fed's December policy meeting show that some of the 12 voting members thought the bond purchases would be warranted through the end of 2013. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
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An Egyptian man stands next to a giant poster of U.S. dollars inside a currency exchange office in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012. As Egypt prepared to release official results from the constitutional referendum, its economy showed increasing signs of distress on Tuesday with worried residents hoarding dollars and fearing that continued political instability will lead to a fast devaluation of the local currency. The Central Bank of Egypt said Tuesday that the U.S. dollar was selling at 6.18 to the Egyptian pound, a spike from the rate of six pounds just two months ago. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
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An Egyptian vendor sells nuts in front of a giant poster of a U.S. dollar outside a currency exchange office in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012. As Egypt prepared to release official results from the constitutional referendum, its economy showed increasing signs of distress on Tuesday with worried residents hoarding dollars and fearing that continued political instability will lead to a fast devaluation of the local currency. The Central Bank of Egypt said Tuesday that the U.S. dollar was selling at 6.18 to the Egyptian pound, a spike from the rate of six pounds just two months ago. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
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Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, left, shakes hands with Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, right, in Ottawa, Ontario, Monday Nov. 26, 2012. Carney will become head of the Bank of England next summer. Flaherty called it a bittersweet moment as he announced Carney's new job as the first time a foreigner has been tabbed to run Britain's venerable national bank. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Fred Chartrand)
UK retail sales drop amid bad weather
LONDON (AP) — Official figures show retail sales in Britain dropped more than expected in January, stoking fears the economy might slip into another recession.
The Office for National Statistics said Friday that, in seasonally adjusted terms, the quantity of goods purchased in the retail sector dropped 0.6 percent from the previous month. Heavy snow is likely to have had an impact.
Sales fell by the same rate compared with the previous year, the first such year-on-year drop recorded since August 2011.
The figures were worse than economists had expected.
The estimates show a decline in goods bought in small stores but an increase for large stores. The decline was particularly steep in stores with nine or fewer employees.
Food sales dropped 2.6 percent compared with a year earlier, in terms of volume.
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