The signs are that the worst of the cost of living crisis may be over for consumers, with CPI inflation at 3.4% in February now well below the rise in average pay of 6.1% for those in work. Pensioners have seen a huge hike of 8.5% and most benefits have been uprated by 6.7%. If only the situation facing businesses
Green shoots of recovery or another false dawn? The chart of the UK’s monthly GDP movement over the past thirteen months, published in mid-March by the Office for National Statistics, confirms just how erratic and weak our growth performance was in 2023. There were six monthly rises and six monthly falls, all of less than 0.75% and most far smaller
The Office for National Statistics has finally put an end to speculation and confirmed that the UK was in a technical recession in the second half of 2023. Forecasts for a recovery are muted, with the EY Item Club and the IMF predicting growth in 2024 of 0.9% and 0.6% respectively. Corporate insolvencies hit an all time high of 26,595
What next for the UK economy now we’re in a recession? Economists need ponder no longer, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) finally confirmed that Q4 2023 saw a fall in GDP adding to the negative outturn for Q3, thereby creating a recession which government sources dismiss as no more than ‘technical’. What it certainly counts as is ‘shallow’ by
The construction industry had a total labour force of 2.15m in Q2 2023, equivalent to some 7% of the total UK labour force. This compares with the pre-pandemic level of 2.3m in Q1 2020 and the peak over the past twenty-five years of 2.6m in Q3 2008 just as the global financial crisis was starting. The employment trend can be
On 25 May 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) wrote to all of the UK’s authorised loan-based peer-to-peer (“P2P”) crowding platforms, to express its concern about areas of potential harm for investors (i.e. lenders). Amongst the four areas listed was the adequacy of current wind-down plans (WDPs), their triggers, and liquidity monitoring. In its latest communication to the P2P sector
