Britain should be able to weather the storm caused by the slowdown in the US economy, Bank of England deputy governor Mervyn King has said.

But he warned that a further weakness in the world's economy, particularly in emerging markets, could still pose a threat.

Mr King said the sharp and sudden break in both business and consumer confidence in the US had come as a major surprise.

US manufacturers' optimism was now, he said, at its lowest level since 1991, the last time the US economy experienced a recession.

Mr King said, however, that while the impact of the slowdown on the UK was uncertain, the economy should be protected.

He explained: "The differences between recent developments in the UK and the US are more significant than the similarities.

"Perhaps the most striking difference is the remarkable resilience of business and consumer confidence in the UK in recent months."

But he said it "would be rash to assume" it would be easy to keep inflation over the next five years within the two to three per cent range within which it has largely moved during the past five.

One threat was the risk the US slowdown posed to economies in emerging markets, particularly those in East Asia exporting hi-tech products to the US.

The immediate outlook in these countries was for weaker growth.

Mr King said: "The major concern is to avoid another financial crisis, of which there have been too many in the past five year."

He explained there was an urgent need for the international community to "raise its game".

He said the key was transparency - which would help reduce the frequency of such crises by alerting markets to problems on the horizon - and recognition that official finance from the International Monetary Fund was "strictly limited".