It’s taken 10 years but the UK is finally experiencing true wage growth that outpaces inflation. With employment and economic activity at record levels, the UK economy should be in good shape but the basic problem of low growth is still there. Our economy still needs to place itself on a stronger footing ahead of a rising probability of another recession in the near future.
UK Economy Tracker #2 – 2018 Q3
The headline of the third quarter of 2018 is that the UK continues to be sluggish but going in the right direction. There is no question, the economy needs a pickup soon to place itself on a stronger footing ahead of a rising probability of another recession in the near future.
UK Economy Tracker #1 – 2018 Q2
The headline of the second quarter of 2018 is the lowest unemployment rate since 1975. Economic Inactivity continues to be at record lows, inflation is falling and the budget deficit is shrinking. However, GDP growth continues to be sluggish which means our pay is stagnating and we have record levels of debt to pay off. History tells us that the odds of another recession soon will rise from now on so there is still a need to change the state of our economy.
UK Economy Tracker #0 – My New Tracker Explained!
Welcome to my first tracker post of the UK economy! I intend this to be similar in format to my UK Weather Tracker except that it will be published quarterly rather than monthly. In this post I will explain the statistics I have chosen to track.
I am a big believer in placing recent statistics in their historical context. Nothing annoys me more than someone overexplaining a small dip in GDP which in historical terms is absolutely meaningless. Unfortunately we live in a world cursed by the year on year comparison without any understanding of basic time series concepts such as autocorrelation and reversion to the mean. So one hope I have with my Economy Tracker is to improve this state of affairs.
