LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Businesses in Britain saw sales plummet even faster at the end of last year than they did in the recession of the early 1990s, figures from the British Chambers of Commerce showed on Tuesday.
The survey of nearly six thousand firms showed sales, orders, investment, confidence and cashflow all fell in the fourth quarter at the fastest rate since the survey began in 1989.
"These are truly awful results with the scale and speed of the economic decline happening at an unprecedented rate," said BCC Director General David Frost.
Following are the key findings: SERVICES Q4 Q3 Q2 Q1 Q4 07 Home sales -31* -7 -2 17 28 Home orders -36* -13 -7 14 18 Export sales -9 13 9 17 15 Export orders -13* 9 6 10 11 Employment expectations -24* 3 8 21 29 Investment - plant and mac. -27* -2 5 8 14 Confidence - turnover -23* 10 17 40 50 Confidence - profitability -34* -12 1 17 30 Full capacity ^ 36 39 38 42 46 Cashflow -32** -14 -10 5 10 Prices 4 38 41 43 40 MANUFACTURING Q4 Q3 Q2 Q1 Q4 07 Home sales -38* -13 -3 12 32 Home orders -48* -17 -5 8 27 Export sales -12 3 28 16 22 Export orders -19 -4 22 16 19 Employment expectations -41* -11 -1 9 8 Investment - plant and mac. -22* -4 2 12 21 Confidence - turnover -32* 4 32 43 46 Confidence - profitability -39* -11 5 27 39 Full capacity ^ 29 37 40 40 46 Cashflow -28** -11 -15 -3 8 Prices 0 42 45 42 41
* Lowest since series began in 1989.
** Lowest since series began in 1991.
All figures are expressed as a percentage balance of firms reporting an increase over those reporting a decrease, except categories marked (^) which show a pure percentage of firms. (Editing by Ron Askew)