Exports Need to Increase in Britain
The UK economy was hit hard by the recession and a new report from Ernst & Young suggests that the country will have to make major readjustments in the next decade. Instead of focusing on consumer spending, the country will have to look to exports in the coming years says the report. Consumer spending in the UK can’t carry most of the economy like it once did.
Firms in the United Kingdom have relied on domestic consumers but they will have to start looking at customers in overseas markets to meet their current goals. Chief economic adviser Peter Spencer said that there had been, “a decade of relying on the domestic consumer.” The report went on to say that economic growth in Britain would have a tough time even reaching 1% for 2010. These are very poor numbers compared to the previous ten years.
Spencer went on to say that domestic spending couldn’t continue at the rate at it had in recent years. The Ernst & Young Item Club report also said spending in the country would increase by less than 0.5% in 2010. These are very low numbers compared to most of the last 20 years. They suggested that it could be very difficult but that firms could grow their global exports in 2010 with a lot of “energy and enterprise”
The Ernst & Young report from this week says refocusing trade to the overseas markets was going to be key to the success of many UK businesses. One place they suggest to start is China. The United Kingdom has been a large player in Asian markets in the past but they seem to have skipped over China to some extent. Currently, the UK has a very low market share in the country. In order to really get the economy back the British will have to look to this growing market in the coming year.
The report said that in 2011 they expect to see increases in UK exports but that 2010 could still be slow. Ernst and Young said that 2010 and 2011 would see export increases of 10% and 11%, respectively. This would calm the nerves of many investors and get the markets moving again. The UK government issued statistics showing the recession had ended in late 2009 but this was only made possible by temporary government measures.
Some of these measures include firms restocking, the car scraping scheme that the government introduced, and increased spending before the VAT increase at the beginning of the year.
Its expected that the positive side effects of these measures will wear off soon which could slow growth significantly in the short term.
At the same time as this report, Begbies Traynor issued more data saying that insolvencies were down in the final quarter of 2009 – as much as 15% lower than a year before. Begbies Traynor felt this could be another side effect of government measures after the recession.
One thing Ernst & Young suggested was that the government could lower interest rates even though further unemployment was expected.
Learn more about consumer spending and IVAs by visiting Mike Garrett’s website.