Structural weaknesses continue to haunt UK economy

According to Larry Elliot writing in the Observer, the British economy needs to take a long hard look at itself and consider again how best to tackle a raft of structural weaknesses.

"The same old problems keep surfacing: too small an industrial base; too much debt; too great a geographical divide between the rich south and the rest of the country; too many poorly paid low-productivity jobs."

Read the article here

Chris Giles links to the FT and a suggestion that a form of quantitative easing might be used to help fund long term investment in social care.

And signs too that UK firms are taking advantage of the weaker £ to increase profits rather than expand sales and grow their market share overseas.

Linda Yueh points to new research on the scale of the NEETS problem across the advanced economies. Youths aged 15-29 who were not in education, employment, or training (NEETS) was, on average, 15% of the age group in OECD countries

Over at the Independent, Ben Chu asks whether fiscal austerity in the UK is really over?

An alternative way of looking at the productivity gap!