larus
Well-known member
UK economy suffers weakest period of GDP growth in five years
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/27/uk-gdp-growth-rate-slows-first-quarter
I’m lookimg forward to [MENTION=240]larus[/MENTION] and his Brexit headbanger makes explaining away this.
I have also previously highlighted, a few times now, the time bomb which is domestic debt. Why isn’t anyone addressing this?
“In another sign of the pressures on household budgets, figures from the Insolvency Service showed the number of people unable to pay their debts in England and Wales reached its highest level in more than five years in the first three months of 2018.
There were 27,388 personal insolvencies in the first quarter of 2018 – the highest quarterly figure since the third quarter of 2012.”
First thing, yes the last quarter of GDP poor. However, this is just the first set of figures for the quarter. More often than not, the revisions are to make GDP higher.
Regarding domestic debt, this is a problem and not just in the UK. However, this is not an issue regarding Brexit - it’s a long-standing problem which has only been exacerbated by the policies of the western Central Banks in response to the financial crisis (the one which all these experts managed to miss - wow, what expertise!!). This had led to assert bubbles in property and stock markets (based on the levels from 2008). This increase in asset prices has meant that those wishing too get on the property market have had to take on more debt. If we were in normal times (which is a subjective view anyway), interest rates would be higher and this would have limited the borrowing ability of people, and would have suppressed house prices to some degree.
This problem of debt is a western problem (most countries but i accept not an issue in Germany). But look at Ireland, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, US. There’s huge levels of debt, either domestic or national. Then you have the structural issues with then Eurozone.
Another problem which has impacted the UK is the level of inward immigration which has driven the demand for housing. Supply/Demand issue. Free movement and all that. I know it works both ways, but we suffer more immigration than emigration. The population has grown rapidly over the last 10-15 years.