Readers question: What will happen if the UK has its credit rating reduced from AAA to AA? Do you remember all those sub-prime mortgage bundles which caused the credit crisis? These mortgage bundles which later proved to be almost worthless were, for a considerable period, given a AAA credit rating by rating agencies. Even Greece, …
Unfortunately, despite the post-Olympic bounce in GDP, other aspects of the UK economy look pretty grim. In manufacturing and industrial output, there has been no real recovery. In manufacturing it is not so much a triple dip recession – more a prolonged double dip. Manufacturing output is 2.1 per cent lower in October 2012 compared …
Readers Question: Can you tell what Portugal has done to reduce the Current Account GDP deficit so steeply? The reduction in the Portuguese deficit is quite striking. In researching the answer to this question, I came up with a different post – The Portuguese Economic crisis From what I can gather, essentially, the rapid reduction …
By any standards, 2012 has been a dismal year for the UK economy. Despite a temporary Olympic bounce, GDP remains below 2008 levels, and the Bank of England is as pessimistic as it’s ever been. Unemployment might be lower than other European economies, but with 1 million underemployed – official statistics perhaps mask the wasted …
Introduction – Recent UK economic performance The UK economy is currently growing at an annual rate of 1.6%, it has low inflation close to the governments target of 2.%. Unemployment has risen in the last 8 months but it is still low at 1.4 million (ILO Survey) compared to the last recession of 1992. The …
A merger will lead to a bigger firm and a greater market concentration. This can have both advantages and disadvantages for the public interest. A merger is likely to reduce competition and give the new firm more market power. Therefore, it will be able to increase prices leading to a decline in consumer surplus and …
The competition commission is the UK body set up in 1998 to regulate mergers and monopoly power in UK markets. It replaced the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. It often deals with issues referred to it by the Office of Fair Trading OFT The competition commission only makes recommendations, enforcement of rules is done by the …
Benefit fraud and tax avoidance are currently emotive topics. What is the extent of benefit fraud and tax fraud in the UK? Benefit Fraud For 2011/12 (preliminary), it is estimated that 2.0 per cent of total benefit expenditure was overpaid due to fraud and error. In 2010/11 – benefit fraud was estimated at £3.4bn – …