The Money Saving Experts advise us that we are in the midst of probably one of the worst financial year on record. We have seen the meltdown of our financial markets, motor manufacturing, housing and retail markets. These markets are all fighting their way through this recession for their survival and existence. Already some great and well known companies have failed and disappeared from our high streets. Town and city centres like Twekesbury have seen 53 shops shut on their high streets out of 200. Cities like Manchester are now being refered to as the Debt City as everyone searchs for a debt solution.
This Recession is a rollercoaster ride of conflicting signs of economic recovery
Economic data seems to be providing conflicting signs on the state of our economy. Different money experts continually talk the economy up or down depending on their views and all we want to know is when our economy will return to normal. The question we all want answering is when will we know that our jobs are secure and the money in our pocket is worth having and when will our savings earn a fair rate of interest and when will the value of our homes stop falling?
The overall picture of the state of our economy is of us moving in a positive direction. Initial indications are that there are lots of different kinds of economic downturns that we can have. One of the big fears at present is that this recession is going through a W-Shaped downturn. (It’s a rollercoaster ride)
This is where the economy nose dives and then you get a little bit of a blip up where all the indicators look like we are coming out of the recession and then just as everybody is beginning to relax we get a second downturn. This is one of the reasons why different groups like the CBI are saying that we should not get too excited about the green shoots of recovery that we think we are seeing at present.
The best explanation for the state of the current recession was; “the green shoots of recovery were less around the corner then around the corner down the street, across the road, around the roundabout and down another road again. In other words recovery is still some way off.”
The Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) director General Richard Lambert stated that they believe the economy is stabilising but growth will not return until the beginning of 2010, and then it will be slow. The CBI also confirmed my own predictions that the green-shoots of improvement we are seeing at present have no roots or proper foundations for sustainable growth and improvement in the economy.
The CBI expects unemployment to continue rising to a peak of 3.03 million by the second quarter of 2010 and that by the end of this recession our economy will have shrunk by 4.8%. The trade Union Congress (TUC) believes that unemployment will continue rising for many months after the UK economy has turned around.
Meanwhile the Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King has other major concerns about the economy and how we recover from this recession and the stimulus package implemented in the last year. He recently commented on the Banks current program of quantitative easing and said that there were “tentative signs” of success but more time was needed to assess the £125bn cash injection into the economy.
Mervyn King warned that the economy was not fixed yet, regardless of positive economic signs and he called for the banks and the government authorities to work together to plan an exit strategy for withdrawing quantitative easing from the system to prevent high inflation taking a grip of our economy.
Most of the experts are well meaning unfortunately the situation we are witnessing today is totally unprecedented and we are all in unchartered territory. The only tip I have is that we all need to buckle up, sit tight and ride this economic tsunami and wait for strong recovery.
Your thoughts, experiences and comments are welcome. You can join the discussion below and leave your thoughts and experiences.
|
Related posts:
- Confidence is the key to recovery from this recession
- The more the Government spends the shorter the recession – Money Expert
- The Greatest Money Saving Tips Ever!
- 11 Money Saving Tips to surviving the Credit Crunch | Money Saving Advice
- Guide to the Government Car and Van Scrappage Scheme – Money Saving Advice
Recession or no recession, one can always create a second stream of income by doing freelance stuff over the web. You can start by devoting a couple of your free hours everyday and increase it as and when you think it demands more attention.
Just thinking of recession and not doing anything is the worst you can do!
The recession has been a long and crazy ride. However, I have to say that, at least in my business, I am starting to see some signs of sustainable recovery.