The building society’s monthly index fell to 69 from 74 in November – the sharpest drop since November 2008 – as consumers faced a year of economic uncertainty.

“The five point fall in confidence in December suggests that an element of caution may have begun to creep back into the minds of consumers over the Christmas period,” said Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide’s chief economist.

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“The looming VAT hike and other tax changes announced in the pre-Budget report may have impacted on confidence in December, forcing people to review their expectations for the future.”

The present situation index was unchanged, but the expectations index dropped by eight points. The proportion of consumers who thought the economic situation will be better in six months’ time fell to 34pc, from 41pc in November. However, the expectations index ended the year 43 points higher than it started it last January, when only 17pc of people thought the UK situation would improve.

“This comes at the end of a positive year for the index, which gained some upwards momentum in 2009 to help claw its way up from the record low seen in January,” said Mr Gahbauer.

House price expectations remained unchanged in December, with consumers forecasting a 1pc rise in the value of their homes over the next six months.

The proportion of consumers who felt now was a bad time to make a major purchase rose by four percentage points to 38pc in December, probably reflecting concerns over the end of the stamp duty holiday and the VAT rate increase on January 1 according to Nationwide.

Expectations for employment also worsened in December, with the proportion of people who thought there would be many or some jobs available in six months’ time falling to 25pc from 27pc, but 10 percentage points higher than January 2009.

“Although it is still early days, these lower expectations may foreshadow a more sluggish consumer outlook in 2010 as stimulus measures are withdrawn,” said Mr Gahbauer.

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Avatar has become the fastest film to make $1 billion in ticket sales

Avatar raked in 33m Chinese yuan on Monday, in a 3-D, 2-D and IMAX joint release, Weng Li, spokesman for state-run film importer China Film Group told The Associated Press in a phone interview on Wednesday.

Mr Weng called the result a strong showing but wasn’t sure if it was a first-day record. The modern benchmark for a hit in China is 100 million yuan ($14.6 million), and Avatar is on track to easily pass that mark in several days.

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But the publicist said the story of aliens on a foreign planet fending off American colonizers is set for even greater box office heights, predicting it will break the all-time box office record recently set by another Hollywood production, 2012. That disaster film had made 460m yuan ($67.3m) as of December 23.

Me Weng said “Avatar” could make 500 million yuan ($73.2m).

“I think it has very good momentum. I think it should break the ’2012′ record,” he said.

The Chinese see a message in Avatar

The strong results on Monday came despite heavy snowfall Sunday in the Chinese capital Beijing, a major movie market.

Cameron is already a box office darling in China, with his last movie Titanic pulling in a then-unprecedented 360 million yuan in 1998 — a record that stood until last year, when it was broken by Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and 2012. The Hollywood director also promoted Avatar in person in Beijing last month.

In wealthy Hong Kong, “Avatar” has earned 84.8 million Hong Kong dollars ($10.9m) from December 17 to Tuesday, Adrian Lo, a publicist for the Hong Kong distributor for Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox, said on Wednesday.

The movie made more than $1bn worldwide as of last weekend.

Chinese box office revenues are still small compared to the US, but they are growing rapidly. Government statistics show that revenues surged from 920m yuan in 2003 to 4.3bn yuan ($630m) in 2008 — compared to $9.8bn in the US in the same year. China had 4,100 movie screens as of the end of 2008.

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Reed Elsevier

The moves, expected in the next six months, were revealed in a leaked internal memo from John Poulin, chief executive of Reed Business Information (RBI) in the US.

Reed Elsevier tried to sell its global business information division, which includes magazines Estates Gazette and Variety, in 2008 but failed to achieve its £1bn to £1.3bn target price and market conditions have worsened since.

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The RBI division made revenues of £463m in the six months to June last year, contributing 15pc of the group’s total turnover and 5pc of operating profits.

Poulin told staff the US business, which has about 50 titles, was in advanced talks to sell some of its controlled circulation magazines – which are sent out free of charge and paid for by advertising – to separate buyers. Paid for magazines, including Variety and Reed Construction Data, will be kept.

Poulin did not name the controlled circulation titles which would be sold, but also said others would be closed.

“This unfortunately will result in title closures and job losses across the business,” Poulin said in the memo. “I know that this will come as a major disappointment but [it] reflects the impact of the structural changes in our markets, accelerated by the recession.”

Last year Reed closed Contract Journal, the 130-year old building magazine, in the UK.

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