Gloomy Industrial Report Shows Britain Still in Grip of Recession

LONDON — Britain's economy remains stuck in recession, and industrial demand has fallen across the country in the last four months, an influential survey by Britain's leading employers group said Wednesday.

The survey from the Confederation of British Industry and Business Strategies Ltd. said companies had suffered disappointing export orders and a fall in demand for key products used by manufacturers, such as metals and chemicals.

The gloomy industrial report served to increase economists' growing unease that the economy, which has suffered seven quarters of negative growth, will struggle to break free of recession this year.

The Treasury in March had forecast that the economy would expand by 1% in 1992, but many independent economists now believe that it will contract again this year as the recession persists.