Barclays' Q4 Profit Slips 3% amid Eurozone Crisis

Barclays' key investment bank arm ended 2011 with its worst quarter for three years as the eurozone debt crisis hit bond trading, dragging the British bank's annual profit down.

Britain's fourth-biggest bank by market value has reported a pretax profit of £5.9bn for 2011, down 3 percent on the year and below analysts' forecast of £6.1bn.

Income at investment bank arm Barclays Capital fell to £1.8bn in the fourth quarter, down 19 percent on the previous three months.