Bank of England, the British central bank, slashed its forecast of the country's economic growth in 2011 and 2012 to about 1 percent on Wednesday.

The bank previously forecast the country's economy would grow by 1.4 percent this year and 2 percent in 2012.

The outlook for growth of the world economy has worsened since August and Britain's economic activity could be broadly flat until around the middle of next year, said Mervyn King, governor of Bank of England, in a news briefing for the bank's latest quarterly report released on Wednesday.

The bank expected Britain's inflation would fall sharply at the start of next year, as contributions of value-added tax (VAT) rise declines, and drop to around the target of 2 percent within 2012.

Britain's inflation rate in October fell slightly by 0.2 percentage point from September to 5 percent, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Figures from the ONS also showed on Wednesday Britain's unemployment rate rose to a 15-year high of 8.3 percent between July and September.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet