UK Economy - A Selection of Articles

Lots of comment and analysis pieces on the UK economy have been published in the last few days. Here is a selection.

Great British slowdown has hamstrung our economy – thinktank

The Resolution Foundation has looked at the post-global financial crisis environment and suggested that the lack of creative destruction in the UK economy since 2008 cost the economy 4% of economic growth. The reason? Exceptionally low interest rates, and generous government aid packages have kept so-called zombie firms alive rather than fostering the constant, competitive churn of firms associated with a more dynamic economy.

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Zombie Britain sees zero growth – and that’s the good news

Phillip Inman on the current state of the economy - noting that if the latest data's correct - PMI data, retail sales data, confidence surveys and so on - then there's not much to look forward to. He sees 2024 being characterised by stagnant growth, and high chance of a recession.

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UK’s political short-termism is killing hopes of business investment

Richard Partington highlighting why certainty is essential to foster confidence in a successful economy and why, in the recent past, the government seem to have squandered it, Brexit aside. Changing tack on climate change targets, and potentially on HS2, might please the right-wing media but don't give businesses or consumers any reason to believe any future policy decisions are for the long-term, and this is exceptionally damaging.

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Nissan to go all-electric by 2030 despite petrol ban delay

And yet, for all the uncertainty about the future direction of policy, Nissan have stated that they will only be selling all-electric cars by 2030. I suspect that they are hoping that this will give them a competitive advantage in the sector, and they're probably also looking to benefit from their battery capacity. The only risk? Will UK government policy be as favourable to electric cars and the introduction of the electric car charging network? Not if the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars has been pushed back to 2035 is my guess.

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