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Not so much ‘Happy Days’ as bumping along the bottom
Today’s GDP figures prompted no tickertape celebrations at the ONS today – in fact, they suggest the country may do nothing more than bump along the bottom for some time.
Today’s GDP figures prompted no tickertape celebrations at the ONS today – in fact, they suggest the country may do nothing more than bump along the bottom for some time.
After some less than cheery figures showing a slight fall in hourly wages in the past decade, the departing Bank of England governor heaps more pressure on David Cameron.
In the end, it wasn’t marginal. This morning GDP figures show Britain clearly back in recession, the dreaded double dip, with GDP in key one at -0.2 per cent.
Mr Miliband reminded MPs of the Chancellor’s optimistic assessment at the time of the spending review in November last year. George Osborne said at the time that private sector job creation would “far outweigh” cuts in public sector employment. But have those high hopes – based on forecasts from the independent Office of Budget Responsibility, been dashed?
“These figures show just how much our economy is being affected by the crisis in the eurozone.” Chris Grayling, September 16 2011 The background The employment minister has pinned the blame for this week’s dire unemployment figures firmly on the sovereign debt crisis in Europe. We’ve already FactChecked the claim – increasing popular on the…
The grim news that a “slow, painful contraction” is expected in the jobs market was met with defiance by the DWP. “We always said that the road to recovery would be tough – there is a long way to go until before we deal with all the economic challenges ahead particularly given the crisis in the Eurozone,” a spokesman said. The problem is, said the Department, the message isn’t getting through that despite the gloom, there are jobs out there. In fact, there are 10,000 new jobs advertised every day at the Jobcentre, they insisted.
My report yesterday on the GDP figures and Krishnan’s rather robust interview of the Chief Secretary of the Treasury has elicited some viewer feedback, and not just about my hard hat. Some correspondents felt we were talking down the economy by “arbitrarily” looking at the flat economy since the end of September, rather than 0.5 per cent growth in Q1 of this year.
Can the economy’s slow growth really be blamed on the harsh winter weather? Economics Editor Faisal Islam looks behind the headlines?
The claim “The level of youth unemployment actually went up by 40 per cent under the last government” David Cameron MP, Prime Minister’s Questions, February 16, 2011
Our Political Editor says the economists are unlikely to be offering any good news to the Government any time soon.