British business hopes plunge

BRITISH business confidence in the economic outlook plunged last month to its lowest level in three years, according to Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets, which said there was a 74% chance of a recession.

An index of British companies’ optimism about the economy compared with three months earlier dropped by 3 points from November to minus 23, the unit of Lloyds said in an e-mailed report released in London. December’s reading was the lowest since January 2009.

“The results indicate that the economy will almost certainly begin the new year with a contraction,” Lloyds economists Hann-Ju Ho and Jonathan Thomas wrote in the report. “As this indicator leads quarterly gross domestic product growth by three to four months, it suggests that economic activity will progressively weaken during the first quarter and the start of the second quarter of 2012.”