UK in recession

UK in recession says Item Club economic forecasters

The eurozone crisis is holding
back investment in the UK, forecasters say
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UK
Economy

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The UK may have already slipped back
into recession, economic forecaster the Item Club has warned.

The think tank said gross domestic product shrank in the final quarter of
last year and would contract again in the current three-month period.

It said that even if the eurozone could resolve its problems the UK economy
would grow by just 0.2% this year.

It also predicted unemployment would rise by a further 300,000 to just below
three million people.
'Exports'
"We are probably in technical recession," the Item Club's chief economic
adviser, Peter Spencer, told the BBC.

"Consumption was very badly hit by rising inflation last year, business
spending has been paralysed, and of course recruitment has also gone on hold as
a result of the euro crisis.

"And unfortunately, turning to exports, Europe takes the lion's share of our
exports."

The Item Club said the economy would not return to normal levels of growth
until 2014 as the eurozone crisis continued to hold back investment in the
UK.

Even if a solution was found, Britain's economy would still only grow by
1.75% in 2013 and 2.8% in 2014, it said.
'Restaurant
vacancies'
The forecaster called on UK exports to find new markets for their products
and stop relying on European economies.

Meanwhile, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said
unemployment would stay above 2.5 million until at least 2016, peaking at 2.9
million next year.

Chief economic adviser John Philpott said the jobless rate would rise to 8.8%
at the end of next year.

But some employers said they had vacancies they could not fill, including
Loch Fyne restaurant chain founder Mark Derry.

"We are finding it very difficult to find people at the moment which is quite
unusual," he said.

"Apparently there's approaching a million under 25-year-olds unemployed and
yet when we open restaurants... in the end we are ending up going sometimes
overseas to find people."
Great expectations
Mr Derry said the company advertised extensively through job centres and
elsewhere.

"The expectation has been set quite high in this country, often through a
generation of kids doing degrees, some of which are not specific," he said.

"I think they're finding it very hard to apply for jobs like ours."

Another forecast from the Centre for Economics and Business Research said the
UK would actually shrink this year by 0.4% and by a full 1% if the eurozone
broke up.

The next official Office for National Statistics figures for growth will be
published next week.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said unemployment figures out this week
were likely to be grim and urged the government to make jobs its "top
priority".

I think the phrase we are looking for is "Britain is in the shit".

Keela wrote:I think the phrase we are looking for is "Britain is in the shit".

Well yes, you could say that

Portugal is even worse off, Junk Bond Status and today the Government is issuing Bonds with the longest repayment date ever!!!!!!

At least, if everyone is out of work Portugal is a beautiful Country , I holidayed there when Albufeira was just being developed.

Panda wrote:

Keela wrote:I think the phrase we are looking for is "Britain is in the shit".

Well yes, you could say that

Portugal is even worse off, Junk Bond Status and today the Government is issuing Bonds with the longest repayment date ever!!!!!!

At least, if everyone is out of work Portugal is a beautiful Country , I holidayed there when Albufeira was just being developed.

I know that Portugal has had its debt status downgraded but there was talk of this happening to the Uk which would spell disaster on a McCann scale. However on a brighter note, Portugal has been applauded by Germany for getting its deficit below the marker set out and the PM has said that the austerity measures the Government has implimented won-t need to be increased. Hopefully we will come out of this stronger.

Keela wrote:

Panda wrote:

Keela wrote:I think the phrase we are looking for is "Britain is in the shit".

Well yes, you could say that

Portugal is even worse off, Junk Bond Status and today the Government is issuing Bonds with the longest repayment date ever!!!!!!

At least, if everyone is out of work Portugal is a beautiful Country , I holidayed there when Albufeira was just being developed.

I know that Portugal has had its debt status downgraded but there was talk of this happening to the Uk which would spell disaster on a McCann scale. However on a brighter note, Portugal has been applauded by Germany for getting its deficit below the marker set out and the PM has said that the austerity measures the Government has implimented won-t need to be increased. Hopefully we will come out of this stronger.

Yes Keela the November figure of unemployment was the highest for 16 years . Add to this the additional cost for making the Olympic Games safe for
visitors and Britain is in recession , possibly leading to a double dip .