The deputy governor of the Bank of England (BOE) said on Tuesday that the economic prospects for Britain in 2012 are grim, with a possibility that the British economy could sink back into recession, and that the eurozone could break up.

BOE deputy governor Charles Bean warned that "output would be broadly flat" with a possibility of recession.

"It is still going to be difficult but perhaps not as difficult as it has been providing the eurozone area problems are kept under control," Bean said in a radio interview with the BBC.

Bean said that there was a danger of nations leaving the eurozone. "It is clearly a worrying situation. Countries eventually may feel that they're better off outside the eurozone than in it," he said.

He warned it would not be easy for a country to leave the euro, and would be "quite disruptive" for those involved.

Bean forecasted that growth in the British economy would not change in the first half of 2012, and pointed to a likely fall due to the high rate of inflation.

BOE figures earlier this week pointed to the squeezed household budgets of Britons, on average of 46 pounds (about 70 U.S. dollars) per month, and how this was stunting consumer demand and in turn economic growth.

Bean said that in the event of a run on eurozone banks exposing British banks to dangers of bad debts, temporary emergency credit would be made available to British banks by the BOE.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet