Justin is one of the most recognisable and trusted market commentators on television, radio, and in the press.
Originally trained as a lawyer, he has observed the retail market industry for 20 years whilst at Barclays Stockbrokers and developed a unique understanding of the market’s roles and benefits for the private investor.
Each week we will bring you Justin’s latest thoughts and commentry. For a taster of this week’s article please continue to read..
AGONY AND ECSTASY – Read the full article here!
For the UK economy I think the phrase was spot on from the chief economist of the Bank of England, Andy Haldane, when he described it as being in a position of both agony and ecstasy. For the ecstasy we now have an economy that is currently growing faster than any other developed economy on the globe. A rate of 3.1% for this year is expected and that for the UK is quite a pace, although obviously nowhere near the dynamic rates of the developing nations. In fact for the UK’s it could be described as running quite hot – especially when you consider not just the QE money pumped into it but the £22.2bn plus set aside for consumers’ claims from the PPI scandals. Whilst growth next year will likely ease to 2.4% according to the EY Item Club, this is hardly agony, although ecstasy would not be a sensible description either. Reasonable is more truthful, although sustainable would be better.
However, another area of possible ecstasy has been unemployment or, more to the point, employment. In the past twelve months we have seen a record rise in employment of 929,000, and more people employed than ever before at over 30.6 million – which is 1.8 million more than in 2010. In fact the percentage employment rate per head has now risen to 73.1% which is equal to the record high set in 2005.
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