August proved to be a great month for the UK, as the optimism of recovery and growth in the UK economy intensifies in line with the return of the new Premiership season.
Nick Colling shares his latest thoughts on the British recovery and draws some interesting parallels with the new Premiership season…
The Premier League is one of the best exports our shores has to offer, and is a global brand. With a summer filled with talk of overpaid footballers asking for transfers, and new talented imports dominating the back pages, the front pages have seen a turn in fortune for our economy. As car sales, construction output and manufacturing all rose, so did the talk of Gareth Bales pending move to Spain.
The comparisons don’t end there, with recent changes at the BOE, creating uncertainty regarding a new direction; the Premiership sees its own series of changes. For my mind, Mark Carney appears to have far more in common with Jose Mouriniho in his approach than Mervyn King, who despite his love for Aston Villa seemed to be more in line with Sir Alex Ferguson. Like Mouriniho, Carney is keen to demonstrate his desire to return these shores to the good times by confirming benchmark interest rates will remain at 0.5%, until unemployment reaches 7%.
Of course with leadership change comes optimism, which will be demonstrated as the fans flock back to Premiership grounds around the country next weekend. Such optimism can be matched in the UK as the green shoots of recovery are beginning to move closer to blooming. In last month’s column, I touched on how the US was further down the line to recovery, something I stand by. However the UK is on the same path. One clear indication of this is that the last UK data release to disappoint is almost as distant a memory as Arsenal winning a trophy, how times change when you stand still.
With the economy recovering and being aided by exports perhaps the time has come to look closely at and examine what we can learn from a product that has a global demand. Current forecasts see the overall economic growth for 2013 at 1%, and 1.7% for next year as Mark Carney looks to put further achievements on his CV during his very own Premiership. Welcome to a new season.