Raising hopes that the British economic recovery was gathering momentum, Lloyds Banking Group says it is likely to report a profit this year.

According to the reports of The Times of London, last year the group lost 6.3 billion pounds ($9.54 billion) after writing off a record 24 billion pounds ($34.8 billion) in loans.

The report further said that most of the bad debt was inherited in the wake of the government-brokered rescue purchase of HBOS.

The surprise announcement prompted analysts to upgrade forecasts for the year from a modest loss for Lloyd's of around 300 million pounds ($454.37 million) to profits of between 500 million pounds to 1 billion pounds ($757 million to $1.54 billion), The Times further said. (With Inputs from Agencies)