British Chamber of Commerce upbeat on UK economy

The British Chamber of Commerce has today issued a surprising report in which the association has increased its forecast for UK economic growth in 2010 from 1.3% to 1.7%. The forecast for 2011 has also been increased from 2% to 2.2% although rather surprisingly the British Chamber of Commerce has also signalled its concern about the medium-term outlook for the UK economy.

Over the next five years the Chamber of Commerce believes that UK gross domestic product growth will average around 2% growth per annum against an average of 3% between 1993 and 2007. This is also well down on the UK government's Treasury forecasts and would seem to indicate that the British Chamber of Commerce believes there are more problems in the medium-term than the short term.

It is proving almost impossible to try and find a consensus forecast for the UK economy in the short to medium term as different associations in the UK come out with different information and often very different views. However, one factor seems to be fairly consistent throughout these reports in that there is a growing consensus that the UK economy does face the possibility of a double dip recession although whether this is in the medium-term or the short term remains to be seen.