There was mixed news for the UK economy during July. The IMF downgraded its forecast growth for the year, cutting it from 2.0% to 1.7%. There was also bad news on productivity – the constant theme running through George Osborne’s Budget speeches – which the Office for National Statistics reported had dropped back to pre-financial crisis levels.
Figures for May showed that UK manufacturing had fallen – although this was largely due to a 4.4% drop in car production – and consumer spending had its worst quarter since 2013 in the three months to June, with expenditure dropping 0.3% year-on-year.
Against this, unemployment fell a further 64,000 to 1.49m, bringing the unemployment rate to 4.5% – the lowest since 1975. The number in work rose to 32m, the highest figure ever recorded and up 324,000 on the previous year. London remains Europe’s leading tech hub and both Google and Amazon have recently announced plans for substantial new investment in the city.
Even retail sales gave a glimmer of hope (despite the downturn in consumer spending) as sales rose 0.6% in June for a quarterly jump of 1.5%. And having surged to 2.9% in May, inflation dropped back to 2.6% in June, helped by lower fuel prices.
The UK mirrored the example set by France in announcing that new petrol and diesel cars will be banned from 2040. BMW followed this announcement by revealing that its new electric Mini will be built in Cowley – giving a huge boost to the car industry and the West Midlands.
With economic growth in the second quarter of the year edging up to 0.3% from the 0.2% seen in the first quarter, it is probably fair to say that the UK ended July with its glass slightly more than half full. That was the view taken by the FTSE-100 index of leading shares, which closed the month up 1% (and 3% for the year as a whole) at 7,372. Helped by fears that a rate rise in the US will now be delayed, the pound ended the month at $1.3224 – it is now up by 7% against the dollar for the whole of 2017.
2 August 2017
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