CBI agrees UK recession is coming to an end
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has today released a statement confirming its belief that the UK recession will end in the fourth quarter of 2009. This will bring to a close the most damaging economic downturn in the UK since the 1930s and hopefully allow some companies to draw a line under recent problems and begin to look to the future.
However, the CBI, like so many other business associations, is well aware that moving out of recession is all well and good, but continuing the upward trend in economic activity will be challenging in 2010. The CBI has been one of the harshest critics of the UK banking arena having seen many of its members struggling to obtain credit even though their underlying business prospects are still very good. There has also been pressure on the UK government from the CBI although so far this has had a limited impact.
However, while it is easy to discount the actions and pressure from associations such as the CBI, they are for all intents and purposes the mouthpiece of the UK business arena. There is a need for businesses to be "singing from the same hymn sheet" and associations such as the CBI are unable to gather and orchestrate a focused programme of pressure on banks, the UK government and various regulators.
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