UK businesses are significantly gloomier about the cost of bank credit over the next year than rivals in Germany or France, according to a report on Wednesday that suggested continental Europe might have seen the worst of the credit crunch.

Almost three-quarters of UK companies expected the cost of credit for companies in their sector to rise in 2009, according a poll conducted by Siemens Financial Services. That compared with about 35 per cent in Germany and 25 per cent in France. The results indicated “that continental economies are over their worst phase, but that Britain has more painful experience to come,” its report said.