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Prime Minister David Cameron said he wants to bring about “a new economic dynamism” in Britain next year to help create private-sector jobs to replace those lost as the government slashes public spending.

“Uppermost in my mind as we enter the New Year is jobs,” Cameron said in a taped message released today, according to a text provided by his office in London. “Small and growing businesses will be our most important job creators, and I want us to look at all the reasons why people find it hard to start a business and all the barriers that stop a small business growing and really get tough with ourselves in addressing them.”

The prime minister said there was no alternative to the government’s deficit-reduction program, rejecting the argument made by Ed Miliband, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, in his New Year message yesterday that the pace of the cuts — the biggest budget squeeze since World War II involving the loss of 330,000 public-sector jobs — should be slowed or families throughout Britain would bear the consequences.

“We have a credible plan for restoring confidence in our economy, but we have to see it through,” Cameron said. “A lot of the heavy lifting will happen in 2011. Each and every minister in this government is acutely aware that the plans we have in place are tough, in fact incredibly difficult, but we are clear that the alternative — indecision and delay — would mean taking unacceptable risks with our economy, our country and our people payday loan lenders in states.”

London Riots

The spending cuts by the coalition government of Cameron’s Conservatives and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats have cast a shadow over the prospects for the economy, with consumer confidence falling to a 20-month low last month. A parliamentary vote to allow universities to triple student tuition fees led to rioting in central London.

Miliband said yesterday that “the scale, pace and targeting of these changes is not just wrong, it holds us back from answering the bigger economic challenges we face: about where the jobs of the future are going to come from and how can we create an economy which works for all.”

The head of the Trades Union Congress, the umbrella labor organization, said 2011 “is going to be a horrible year” as benefit cuts take effect.

The final YouGov Plc poll this year for The Sun newspaper put Labour support at 41 percent, 2 percentage points ahead of the Conservatives, with the Liberal Democrats at 9 percent, less than half their share of the vote in May. The poll was carried out Dec. 22-23.

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A new survey shows consumer confidence dipped in December, even after other reports suggest people increased their holiday spending at the biggest rate in four years.

The Conference Board, a private research group, says its Consumer Confidence Index fell to 52.5, down from a revised 54.3 in November. Economists were expecting 55.8. It takes a reading of 90 to indicate a healthy economy, a level not approached since the recession began in 2007 payday loans direct lenders.

Economists watch confidence closely because consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity.

The index is based on a survey of 5,000 consumers with a cutoff date of Dec. 20.

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A Bank of Japan board member said there’s uncertainty about the U.S. Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing policy, minutes from the bank’s policy- setting meeting showed.

One “member was of the view that the effects of the measure taken” by the Fed “were highly uncertain and growth in the U.S. economy was still likely to remain low for some time,” minutes from a Nov. 4-5 meeting released by the BOJ in Tokyo today said.

The BOJ board meeting was held after the Fed announced it would buy an additional $600 billion of Treasuries to support the world’s biggest economy. Regarding Japan’s expansion, BOJ members said they needed to continue to monitor the effect of the yen’s advance on exporters, with one person noting gross domestic product could contract this quarter.

“Many members said that careful attention should continue to be paid to the possibility that the appreciation of the yen might exert downward pressure on Japan’s economy by negatively affecting business and household sentiment,” the minutes said. “A few members expressed the opinion that careful attention should be paid to the economy’s vulnerability to downside risks, particularly when the pace of economic improvement remained slow.”

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South Korean consumer confidence declined in December as people became less optimistic about the economy and job prospects.

The sentiment index fell to 109 from 110 in November, the Bank of Korea said in an e-mailed statement in Seoul today. A number exceeding 100 indicates optimists outnumber pessimists.

The central bank left borrowing costs at 2.5 percent this month after an appreciation in the nation’s currency contributed to a moderation in economic expansion. It increased interest rates by a quarter percentage-point each in July and November from a record-low 2 percent. Gross domestic product growth will cool to 4.5 percent next year, from 6 low fee pay day loans.1 percent in 2010, the monetary authority said on Dec. 10.

A sub-index measuring consumers’ views of the economic outlook dropped to 105 in December from 108 in November, while the sub-index on the job outlook fell to 100 from 104. The expected inflation rate over the next year rose to 3.3 percent from 3.2 percent.

The consumer confidence index is based on survey responses from 2,103 households in 56 cities and was conducted by mail and telephone between Dec. 13 and Dec. 20.

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Holiday procrastinators packed stores Friday morning, grabbing those last few presents, gift cards and the finishing touches for Christmas dinner.

For stores, this 11th-hour dash caps the best holiday season since 2007, and possibly the best ever. With Christmas falling on a Saturday this year, Friday is a holiday for most workers. That allowed shoppers to hit the stores first thing in the morning.

“I’m calling it Fantastic Friday, because I really do think it’s going to be one of the busiest days of the year,” said Marshal Cohen, chief fashion industry analyst with researcher NPD Group.

A strong Christmas Eve would round out a surprisingly successful holiday season for retailers. The National Retail Federation predicts that holiday sales will reach $451.5 billion this year, up 3.3 percent over last year. That would be the biggest year-over-year increase since 2006, and the largest total since sales hit a record $452.8 billion in 2007. A strong finish could even give 2010 the crown.

At the CVS drugstore in Decatur, Ga., Lisa Belcher, 42, was picking up a heating pad and gift cards for “a dinner and a movie.”

“I usually end up having to get something on Christmas Eve,” she said.

Many still didn’t know what they wanted.

“When I walk past it, I’ll know,” said Jewelyn Sanders, 57, of Washington, D.C., who was looking for gifts for her three sisters in the linen section of Macy’s in downtown Washington. She had already bought them Wal-Mart gift cards but wanted something more for each of them.

Plenty of others were desperate.

“I don’t have time to look for deals,” said Rob Tibbo, of Hooksett, N.H., who was finishing up his buying at the Steeplegate Mall in Concord. Tibbo started shopping Thursday was buying his wife a Coach bag.

While both are heavy shopping days, Christmas Eve draws a different breed of buyer than Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season.

“Those who get up and brave the cold on Black Friday are usually looking for hot items, not only to buy gifts but to score something for themselves,” said Kathy Grannis, a spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation. “They’re planners, and they map out what they want to buy.”

Shoppers who come out on Christmas Eve, on the other hand, were either waiting for the biggest discounts or they didn’t have the money to spend earlier, she said. Or they just tend to dilly-dally.

While many Black Friday shoppers relish the hunt, last-minute buyers are harried and focused on getting things done. At toy stores, shopping is particularly intense as parents scramble to find the perfect toy.

“Stores are packed,” said Jerry Storch, CEO of Toys R Us, which for the first time has all stores open for 88 hours straight, until 10 p.m. Friday.

“This is a big day in terms of the intensity of shopping,” he said. Storch noted that shoppers are out looking for all kinds of toys, but he can’t guarantee parents will find some of the season’s hottest. Mattel Inc.’s Monster High line is scarce, while shoppers will probably be out of luck getting a Dance Star Mickey.

And true to stereotype, procrasinators are mostly men, said Dan Jasper, spokesman for Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.

Accordingly, stores push men’s and women’s sweaters in their circulars, while shoes and children’s apparel take a back seat fast payday loan no faxing. Jewelry also tends to be a top last-minute gift item, though that category has been strong throughout the season.

E-commerce has driven much of the holiday’s spending growth, as more Americans responded to online sales and free shipping offers. For the season to-date, $36.4 billion has been spent online, a 15.4 increase over last year, according to MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse.

Many people who postponed their shopping this year blame busy schedules. The number of hours U.S. workers are putting in at the office each week has been on the upswing since the official end of the recession in June 2009, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That leaves less time for shopping during the week.

Procrastinators shouldn’t hit too many snags, if they’re open-minded. Macy’s and others had plenty of sweaters and other fashions, for example. Store inventories are not as depleted as last year, when merchants scared about having too many leftovers saw some empty shelves near the end of the season.

Sanders of Washington said she hadn’t been able to get everything on her list. A sporting goods store she went to was sold out of New York Giants slippers and jerseys she wanted for her brother-in-law.

Shoppers are not seeing the 75-percent-off-everything fire sales that characterized the 2008 holiday. Still, many stores deepened discounts this week. Express’s store at the Manhattan Mall in midtown had a huge yellow sign in its storefront window promoting an “end of the season 50 percent sale” on selected items.

At CVS, there are buy-two-get-one free deals on bath-and-body gift sets and discounts on a 7-inch LCD TV and DVD player combo.

If all else fails, shoppers will fall back on gift cards. Spending on the plastic vouchers is expected to reach nearly $25 billion this holiday season, 5 percent more than last year, according to the National Retail Federation.

Retailers say shoppers have mostly stuck to a big lesson taught by the recession: using cash, not credit. Toward the end of the season, they pulled out the plastic a little more often, but that’s normal. Overall, analysts consider the increased spending a sign more consumers have paid down debt and have cash to spend.

Besides sales, retailers are finding other ways to accommodate procrastinators.

Many stores, including Best Buy Co., let shoppers order online and then pick up the merchandise at the store. Best Buy’s deadline to order on its website is 3 p.m. Christmas Eve, and most stores close at 6 p.m.

Best Buy’s store in Union Square in Manhattan had about 300 people in the store Friday morning, said store manager Amy Adoniz. And she said more than 100 online orders are coming in every hour for store pickup. Among the top sellers are e-readers, cameras and video-game systems.

“People are in the holiday spirit. They’re feeling more at ease,” she said.

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AP Retail Writer Mae Anderson in Atlanta; AP Business Writer Tom Murphy in Indianapolis; and AP Writers Jessica Gresko in Washington, D.C.; and Holly Ramer, in Concord, N.H., contributed to this story.

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The number of mergers and takeovers involving Canadian companies is expected to increase in the first half of next year, after a slight dip in 2010, says a report from KPMG.

The advisory firm said that next year terms and conditions will be the most important part of deals.

Walter Shimoon was one of a select few who get a peek behind the veil Apple Inc. cinches tightly around its products.

His alleged attempt to profit illegally from that privilege caught up with Shimoon last week, when the former manager at Apple supplier Flextronics International Ltd. was among three people arrested for supplying inside information to investors.

Shimoon, 39, was paid more than $22,000 (U.S.) to share nonpublic sales forecasts and other information about future products, including The iPad, according to the criminal complaint. His arrest underscores the difficulty faced by Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs, who runs the world

Japanese household assets rose in the third quarter, the central bank said today.

The value of households’ financial assets climbed 0.3 percent from a year earlier to 1,442 trillion yen ($17 trillion) in the three months ended Sept. 30, the Bank of Japan said in its quarterly flow of funds report released in Tokyo.

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China and India vowed to boost their bilateral trade by two-thirds to $100 billion in the next five years, following talks in New Delhi between prime ministers Wen Jiabao and Manmohan Singh.

The governments of the world’s fastest-growing major economies agreed to increase investment and bank access in each other’s economies and “to take measures to promote greater Indian exports to China with a view to reduce India’s trade deficit,” said a joint statement released after the talks. It said details of how to ease cross-border banking remain to be worked out.

Treading lightly on points of tension between the two countries, the statement said they will “work together to maintain peace and tranquility” in disputed areas of their 4,200-kilometer (2,600-mile) Himalayan border, where Indian media reported incursions by Chinese troops earlier this year. The statement omitted any reference to China’s close ties to India’s rival, Pakistan, or its position on the conflict over Kashmir, which have drawn criticism from Indian officials.

Wen met Singh on the second of his three days in India, after which he flies to Pakistan for a stay that will include a speech to the National Assembly.

Regarding India’s campaign for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, Wen stopped short of the endorsements delivered by U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in their India visits in the past six weeks. China “understands and supports India’s aspiration to play a greater role in the United Nations, including in the Security Council,” the statement said.

Multilateral Cooperation

The governments repeated earlier commitments to oppose terrorism “in all its forms” and to cooperate on multilateral issues such as climate change, trade liberalization, energy and food security and international financial reforms.

Annual trade between the world’s most populous countries has jumped in a decade from less than $3 billion to an expected $60 billion this year, a level that should “substantially increase,” Wen told a business conference in New Delhi yesterday. The countries “make up nearly a tenth of the world’s economic output, yet China-India trade accounts for a mere 0.2 percent of the global total,” he said.

During his visit, Chinese companies will sign $16 billion of deals with Indian counterparts, Wen said. Commerce Ministry official Liang Wentao told reporters in Beijing on Dec. 13 the agreements will include an $8 instant credit reports.3 billion sale of coal-fired power generators by Shanghai Electric Group Co. to Reliance Power Ltd.

Indian Exports

India’s ICICI Bank Ltd. finalized a $1 billion financing agreement with Industrial & Commercial Bank of China and Shanghai Electric Group Co. Reliance Communications Ltd. will borrow $2 billion from China Development Bank Corp.

Wen said his government will respond to India’s request that China widen access to its markets for Indian goods — notably pharmaceuticals, information technology and agricultural products — to reduce a trade deficit that reached $18 billion as of November, according to Chinese figures.

Wen yesterday dismissed the idea of relations as a “rivalry between the dragon and the elephant” and said “there is enough space in the world for the development of both.

The Chinese leader began today with a ceremonial welcome at the presidential palace in central Delhi where he said he hoped to use his trip to deepen relations between the people of both countries and achieve an “important strategic consensus” with Indian leaders.

Bilateral Investment

At yesterday’s business conference, Wen called for development of joint tourism, finance and investment, saying each area is under-developed for the size of the two economies. India’s gross domestic product climbed 8.9 percent for a second straight quarter in July to September, while China’s economy grew at a 9.6 percent annual pace in the same period.

While India and China “have received more foreign direct investment than any other country,” investment between them “falls short of $700 million,” Wen said. He called for easier procedures for moving capital and people between the countries to create “more favorable conditions for mutual investment.”

Wen’s visit, six weeks after a similar trip by Obama and days before the arrival of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, illustrates the rivalry to court India, said Bates Gill, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Despite their regional disputes, “the interest at least in the near-to-medium term for the two countries is to create a constructive context in their relationship to try to settle differences,” Gill said in a Dec. 8 interview.

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