As the Group of Eight world leaders discuss the environment, the world economy and global food prices and the impact of biofuels, the struggling UK Government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has made a significant concession to slow the use of biofuels.

While oil trading dominated commodity markets last week lead slumped sharply, losing 13%.

If our report of earlier in the week wasn’t bad enough about the British economy, more figures have come to light that suggest it’s almost in free fall, so rapid is the downturn.

The UK housing sector, already beset by plunging demand and prices, has been hit with a potential body blow which could tip the economy into a deep recession.

Inflation in South Korea has had its biggest rise in 10 years as the country battles rapidly rising oil prices.

"Inflation is likely to remain relatively high in the short term, and the consumer price index will be further boosted in coming quarters by the recent rises in global oil prices."

The British economy continues to go from worse to bad with consumer sentiment now at levels not seen since the early 1990s, growth slumping, house prices down nine months in a row, another bank with problems and the country’s biggest home builder rescued.

We will see some tidying up in our market today with the end of the financial year, but that won’t disguise the worldwide trend for the six months to June: it’s been the worst for 26 years and no one has got any confidence about the next six months.

Oil remains the only commodity in town, so to speak, the others are all sideshows, even gold which came to life Thursday and Friday and ended the week well over $US900 an ounce and at a one month high.

New Zealand is contracting and could beat the US and UK economies into official recession status.

Thanks to the US sub-prime crisis, the oil shock and higher local interest rates Australian shares look like having their worst financial year since 1981-82.