The recession will be longer lasting in Britain than in any other major economy, according to forecasts released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

An IMF analysis predicts that the UK will be among the worst hit this year and the only major economy to experience negative growth across 2010.

It suggests that the global economy will shrink by 0.6% in 2009, compared to 3.8% in Britain. Japan's is the only major economy that will fare worse this year, contracting by 5%.

Growth across all G7 nations will be -3.2%, the same as the Eurozone economies, while in the US it will be -2.6%.

Next year, the IMF expects the UK economy to shrink by another 0.2%, while the rest of the world returns to growth.

The global economy is predicted to expand by 2.3% in 2010, the G7 and the US by 0.2%, and the Eurozone by 0.1%.

The figures were released by Teresa Ter-Minassian, an adviser to IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn. They are to be officially published before IMF and World Bank meetings in Washington on April 24 and 25.

Shadow chancellor George Osborne said: "These IMF forecasts show that Britain is set to have the longest recession of all the major economies.

"It is further evidence that Gordon Brown's economic model is fundamentally broken and his policies on the recession aren't working.

"Thanks to Labour the recession in Britain will be longer and deeper."

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