Confidence growing amongst UK manufacturers
If there is one thing for certain it is the uncertainty of the UK economy in the short to medium term with a report by the CBI suggesting that UK manufacturers are growing in confidence. The report shows that British manufacturers fully expect business to pick up over the next three months with a weaker pound and a strong export market the main catalyst for the confidence. However, this comes against a backdrop of a very difficult period for the UK economy which many sectors are already beginning to feel.
One problem is, as the survey suggests, if UK manufacturers increase their prices in the short to medium term this will feed into the inflationary figure and stretch budgets across the UK even further. It seems almost inconceivable that against this backdrop of a very difficult economic period for the UK we could see a further squeeze on household budgets and a re-emergence of inflation. There are growing fears that if this particular trend was to continue this could have a major impact upon the UK economy and possibly push us towards a double dip recession.
The UK economy is proving very difficult to forecast in the short to medium term as there are so many different signals and so many different trends emerging.
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