According to Robert Peston (the BBC’s Economics Editor), the UK is in pretty good shape. In a recent article in The (London) Times (December 30th 2014, page 29) he referred to an annual growth rate of 2.6% between the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2014. He added that the UK is expanding more rapidly than other developed economies, with the exception of the US. (However, if the US does well, we usually do well).
Robert Peston went onto say that, perhaps surprisingly, real household disposable income is above the boom year levels by over 1% (partly because of low interest rates, which he doesn’t think will change until the autumn of 2015). British households are now worth £220,000, which is some 10% more than they were worth prior to the great crash. Yes, a great deal of this money is locked up in property, but this is still good news.
On the previous day in The Times (December 29th., page 25), Matt Ridley gave a host of reasons for 2015 being a good year for the UK. There are are number of celebrations during the year ahead (including Magna Carta). He added that the UK economy has recently overtaken that of France, to make us the world’s 5th largest economy. Income per capita has ‘more than doubled’ since 1965 and standards of living continue to rise. London is “where everybody’s rich people wants to live”, which partly explains the boom in property prices there.
I have lived (and worked) through several recessions. I graduated in the middle of one and have grown my business through them. I believe that 2015 will be a good year economically, so the question is: are you prepared for an upturn in business? Now that the recession is behind us, there are more sales opportunities out there – however – the big change is the ubiquity of the web.
Happy New Year!
