When interest rates were cut to 0.5% in March 2009, few would have expected them to remain at 0.5 until the present time. Yet, we have seen an unprecedented period of zero interest rates. There is much speculation about: When interest rates will rise? How much will interest rates to increase to? What will be …
Economists generally agree that a high inflation rate has various economic costs and therefore, we should use economic policy to keep inflation low. Since the mid 1980s, governments have increasingly set strict inflation targets, e.g. ECB inflation of less than 2%. The Bank of England targeting inflation of 2% +/-1. However, some economists argue that …
Readers Question: how to revise for a possible exam question like: discuss the likely effectiveness of ‘expansionary fiscal and monetary policies as means of closing the output gap’ Firstly write down the question on a blank piece of paper. Then try and revise in three parts. Part One – Knowledge define terms Expansionary fiscal policy …
For those who like to keep track of the myriad different rates of inflation, the ONS will shortly be publishing a new measure – RPIJ. RPIJ will be basically RPI, but calculated in the same way as CPI which uses a geometric mean. CPI = official household inflation measure (CPI) – calculated using a geometric …
I like this article about the wrong kind of inflation by Roger Bootle Or as his cleaner said: “It’s not the inflation they need to sort out, Mr Bootle, it’s the rising prices!” Essentially, the wrong kind of inflation is cost-push inflation. This inflation is due to rising costs of production, such as rising energy …
Summary of UK Economy at the Start of 2013 The UK economy starts 2013 after one of the longest periods of economic stagnation on record. GDP has been flat for the past two years, and real GDP is still way below the 2008 peak. Despite the depressing picture of economic growth, unemployment (7.9%) is much …
There is hope that the UK may officially be leaving the current recession (for the second time). However, this recovery needs to be put into perspective in to what kind of recovery should we have been expecting? Interesting research by Moritz Schularick, Alan Taylor, 24 October 2012 on this post- “What should we have expected …
Readers Question: Why is it, that some countries e.g USA, UK, Japan etc can electronically create money whereas India, Germany, Euro etc have to work, trade and manufacture exports and growth to keep pace with the above mentioned ? Any country could electronically create money if they wanted to. To summarise, the only good time …