For any government it would be hard to ensure the re-election of its party during a time when it's faced with a falling housing market, rising food and energy prices and mounting fears of unemployment.

Some quirky facts from the United Kingdom's central bank.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown cut an unpopular tax on home purchases on Tuesday as part of a package designed to boost the country's slumping housing market and lift his flagging political fortunes.

Britain's economy unexpectedly ground to a halt in the second quarter, its weakest performance since the recession of the early 1990s, revised official data showed on Friday.

British house prices fell 4.8 percent year-on-year in August, a survey by property Web site Rightmove showed on Monday, the fastest fall since the series began six years ago.

Inflation in the UK rose 4.4 percent in July according to the latest consumer price index (CPI) data and the Bank of England's own inflation outlook released Wednesday is sure to paint a similar picture.

Confidence in the UK real-estate sector showed tentative signs of recovery in July, but the lack of mortgage liquidity is likely to cause further price declines as banks continue to protect their balance sheets, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors said Tuesday. 

The British economy is heading into recession and interest rates should fall to "well below" their current 5 percent, Bank of England policy-maker David Blanchflower was quoted as saying in a newspaper interview.

An emergency fundraising by HBOS, Britain's biggest home lender, flopped as investors took just 8.3 percent of the shares, leaving underwriters trying to sell almost 3.8 billion pounds ($7.57 billion) of stock.

Barclays' shareholders took up just 19 percent of new shares in the British bank's recently announced fundraising, meaning the bulk of the money will be provided by mostly new "anchor" investors led by Qatar.

Soaring food and fuel prices pushed Britain's inflation rate to nearly double the central bank's 2 percent target in June, official data showed on Tuesday, boosting talk of interest rate hikes ahead.

The outlook for UK housing improved slightly in June, but a sharp downturn in the economy could see the foundations of the British real-estate market start to crumble, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors said Tuesday.

Britain's Barratt Developments will cut nearly a fifth of its workforce to cope with the housing market downturn, joining other builders taking similar measures, and will not pay a final dividend for 2007-08.

The Bank of England kept its main interest rate steady at 5 percent on Thursday, as widely expected, despite rising inflation.

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee will find itself in no easier position on Thursday, as it meets again to decide on UK interest rates. With rising inflation and falling growth, there seems no alternative but to wait, see and keep writing letters.