This current crisis is now widely recognised by measurement of all sorts of parameters as having been the worst recession in the last sixty years, yet the CBI went public with it's 'shallow' recession prediction last September... Buoyed by the outstanding (in)accuracy of their previous prediction, the CBI are now more or less telling us that the recession is all but over... Curiously, they go on to say that there will be no recovery until this time next year - so it's not over then??
This all goes to impress on us how good the CBI are at a guaging the UK economy - ie. next to useless - to be fair it is the CBI's remit to help Gordon Brown to re-inflate the economy, and putting a positive slant on things is the means which they have employed.
Whilst we are waiting for what the budget has in store for us, there is news about house prices too, but once again one has to be wary about who is publishing the figures. Property sellers 'rightmove' have published figures illustrating a rise in house prices for the third consecutive month. This is enough to indicate a possible leveling out, although prices are still dropping in some areas, most notably in London.
Mortgage approvals are also on the up, although there is still some way to go in order to reach the levels of twelve months ago. However retail spending is not showing any reported rises as yet.
Related posts:
When will the property market recover?
25% house price drop expected
Effects of the crunch in the UK
2 comments:
Well it will not be over until a majority of people believe that it is and then they will start spending money again. The governments need to try to make us believe it is over but without making themselves sound silly and that is a hard job for them at the best of times!
Certainly there will be no upturn in spending until people are more confident. I don't think we are there yet especially with uncertainty in the job market.
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