Officially, what defines a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth in real Gross Domestic Product. In practice, any period of high rates of unemployment, interest rates, inflation, or other indicator is called a receccion by politicians and media people.

re·ces·sion (r-sshn)
n.
The withdrawal or retreating of tissue from its normal position.
1. The act of withdrawing or going back.
2. An extended decline in general business activity, typically two consecutive quarters of falling real gross national product.
3. The withdrawal in a line or file of participants in a ceremony, especially clerics and choir members after a church service.

A recession is defined to be a period of two quarters of negative GDP growth.
Thus: a recession is a national or world event, by definition. And statistical aberrations or one-time events can almost never create a recession; e.g. if there were to be movement of economic activity (measured or real) around Jan 1, 2000, it could create the appearance of only one quarter of negative growth. For a recession to occur the real economy must decline.