Today’s UK budget is called ‘the budget for growth’ with the four E’s of enterprise, education, employment, and everywhere. Jeremy Hunt heavily trailed the latter in a speech he made at Bloomberg’s offices in January. Many of the proposals in the Budget were as expected and were known by the media. In other words, there …
Annus horribilus – yet another lost year
Optimism at the start of 2022 that, with the end of the pandemic, the UK was on the cusp of a period of robust and steady growth, was dashed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February. Although the headline average annual growth rate is 4%, it is highly misleading. The economy is in recession. …
Is the UK already in recession?
As the campaign to become the leader of the Conservative party and therefore Prime Minister of the UK is whittled down to the final two candidates, the economy continues to struggle. It has shown paltry growth since the crisis of 2007/8, mainly down to poor productivity. ‘Levelling up’, Brexit, none of these has changed that …