Blog : Global recovery

Expenditure on cars boosts UK growth

On 30/03/2010, by Andrew Brigden. Keywords: Global recovery

This morning saw the publication of better-than-expected UK GDP data for the final quarter of last year. The UK economy is now estimated to have expanded by 0.4% in 2009 Q4. That compares with a month 1 estimate (published in January) of 0.1% growth, and a month 2 estimate (published last month) of 0.3% growth. Over the past month there have been small upward revisions to the estimated rate of growth of output in most sectors of the economy.

But the picture on activity in 2009 Q4 is still far from clear. Of the three approaches to measuring GDP – output, income and expenditure – the ONS considers that, in the short term, the output measure provides the most accurate guide. Until the National Accounts are ‘fully balanced’, which takes around two years, the ONS makes an alignment adjustment to both the income and expenditure measures so that all three approaches provide a single estimate of growth.

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Drop 'til you shop

On 10/03/2010, by Andrew Clare. Keywords: Global recovery

You can berate Americans for many things.

For inventing sports that no one else wants to play, and then for claiming that they are the world champions of these sports.

For inventing cars that have all the handling and performance capabilities of a leaky rowing boat. For the widespread and indiscriminate abuse of the English language, for example, their use of the word "invite" when they really mean "invitation", to say nothing of their spelling.

But until very recently one could never accuse Americans of being thrifty. We all know that Americans love to shop. They just love to spend money – both their own and other people's. They love it so much that one could argue that shopping, not baseball, is their real national sport, and that the malls that sprawl across that great county are their cathedrals.

To read the full article – published by Financial Adviser – please click here.

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