Storms settle over UK economy

by Catherine Woods - Thursday, 14th August 2008 - - Business comment

It’s Thursday afternoon and the sun is now shining outside Real Business HQ in Chelsea after the mother of all rainstorms. Unfortunately, however, stormy weather continues to batter the UK’s economy and we shouldn’t expect to see the sun for quite a while.

Why the depressing outlook? Well, consider the type of economic stories we’ve seen so far this week:

• The Bank of England was decidedly downbeat when talking about the prospects for the UK's economy.
• Inflation is at its highest level since the early 1990s
• Unemployment numbers have rocketed up 60,000
• Sterling is dropping in value against the dollar
• Senior executives are fleeing the UK because of the credit crunch

Unfortunately, we’re also seeing more entrepreneurs being crunched out of business. Take, for example, property tycoon Andrew Strode-Gibbons.

You’ve got to feel for the guy – when the property market was up, Strode-Gibbons seemed untouchable. Now, he’s no doubt wondering: what next?

We’re being bombarded by ceaseless amounts of depressing economic data plus some real-life horror stories, making it harder not to start feeling… concerned? Depressed? Scared?

How about all of the above?

We’ve been living with the credit crunch for a year now and it’s clear this is no passing summer storm. Those searching the skies for a rainbow to signal the end of the squall will be searching for a while.

Picture source

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