The pound fell against the euro for the first time in four days after a report showed Britons’ concern about losing their jobs soared to a record last month. Gilts also slid. Sterling tumbled from a 16-month high as a Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets index of job security fell to the lowest in December since the measure began in 2004. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are scheduled to meet in Berlin today to craft a plan to end the euro-area debt crisis. The pound fell 0.3 percent to 82.68 pence per euro at 9:18 a.m. London time, after touching 82.22 pence, the strongest since Sept. 10, 2010. It was little changed at $1.5431 per dollar. Sterling fell to the weakest in three months against the yen before trading little changed at 118.67. An index of job security fell to minus 33 from minus 21 in November, the unit of Lloyds Banking Group Plc said in an e- mailed report in London today. Lloyds’ index of consumers’ inflation expectations dropped 5 points from November to 65, the lowest reading since December 2009. All but one of 41 economists in a Bloomberg News survey said the Bank of England will leave its bond-purchase target unchanged at its next meeting, on Jan. 12. The nine-member Monetary Policy Committee will leave the benchmark interest rate at a record-low 0.5 percent, according to all 53 economists in a separate survey. Leaders Meet Merkel and Sarkozy meet in Berlin today to flesh out a new rulebook for fiscal discipline negotiated at a Dec. 9 summit that seeks to create a “fiscal compact� for the 17-member euro area. The talks will be followed by a joint press conference. The yield on 10-year (GUKG10) gilts was two basis points. or 0.02 percentage point, higher at 2.03 percent. It declined to 1.932 percent on Dec. 30, the least on record. The 3.75 percent securities due September 2021 fell 0.160, or 1.60 pounds per 1,000-pound face amount, to 114.975. Two-year (GUKG2) yields were little changed at 0.41 percent. Gilts have returned 18 percent in the past year, according to indexes compiled by Bloomberg and the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies. German government bonds have gained 9.6 percent and U.S. Treasuries added 10 percent, the indexes show. Sterling has advanced 2.7 percent in the past six months against nine developed-nation peers tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes, the third best performer after the yen and the dollar. To contact the reporters on this story: David Goodman in London at dgoodman28@bloomberg.net; To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Tilles at dtilles@bloomberg.net

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