I’ve just watched the BBC One o’clock news. In it the headline (give or take a word) said…
“The UK economy didn’t shrink as much as expected during the last quarter, falling only 0.7%. The real question though is how long this recovery will be sustained.”
Hold on, the economy SHRANK -0.7% in three months. That’s not a recovery, it’s a recession. Remember this fall is ON TOP of falls in previous quarters, in other words ‘our already shrunk economy has shrunk further’.
If a car was driving at 70 miles an hour, and a second later was at 60 mph, and the second after at 55mph – you wouldn’t say it was speeding up – you’d say it’s no longer slowing down quite as rapidly.
This isn’t a recovery – some may read it as a sign the recession’s getting less harsh, or even that recovery may be on the cards sooner than people thought – but it’s by no means a recovery yet.