Global Economy Heading Into Recession, National Australia Says

By Jacob Greber

Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The global economy is going into a recession, and the U.K. and U.S. are going to have ``a really hard time,'' the head of National Australia Bank Ltd. told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. in an interview.

The main engines of growth such as the U.S. and U.K. will go into ``a technical recession,'' and the severity of the growth decline will depend on what happens to China, National Australia Chief Executive Officer John Stewart said on the ABC's Inside Business program today.

The bank, Australia's biggest by assets, posted a 24 percent drop in second-half profit Oct. 21 as funding costs rose and the company increased provisions for potential securities losses.

To contact the reporter for this story: Jacob Greber in Sydney at jgreber@bloomberg.net