IMF Healthcheck: Prolonged weak growth likely
The IMF has cited some improvement in overall economic conditions, but has urged the government to do more to speed up growth in its assessment of the UK economy.
Green Politics
Ignore the rhetoric: the deficit is growing
According to the latest ONS borrowing figures, the deficit for April was £6.3bn, around £2bn lower than expected. Public sector net borrowing for the previous year (2012/13) was revised down from £120.6bn to £119.5bn (compared to a deficit of £120.9bn in 2011/12).
Today’s labour market statistics: ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’
The ‘recovery’ in the wider economy is not being matched by rising real wages or rising living standards, instead the demand-constrained UK economy might be stumbling into a lower wage, lower productivity growth model with serious implications for living standards in the future.
For those who argue people are overtaxed in the UK and will run away if rates aren’t cut
This table has just been published by the OECD and shows the “tax wedge” taken from employment earnings for all 34 OECD countries.
Unemployment up 15,000 to 2.52 million
Unemployment rose by 15,000 between January 2013 and March 2013 to 2.52 million, with the unemployment rate rising to 7.8 per cent, today’s labour market statistics reveal.
Boris Johnson: wrong on ‘sloth’, right about management
It’s interesting that, in his column for today’s Telegraph, Boris Johnson has cited the German economy as the measuring stick against which Britain should compare itself.
It’s no good drawing a correlation between green policies and rising bills. The figures don’t back it up
If Labour is to provide the genuine green alternative to the Tory luddites, they must highlight the missed economic opportunity of a low-carbon economy, using the top economic voices in the party. Lower and more stable bills help our companies compete, while low-carbon infrastructure itself is a key growth area in jobs and investment.
UK performing worse than all but one G7 country in ‘global race’
The UK is experiencing a slower economic recovery than 23 of the 33 advanced economies monitored by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and is lagging behind all but one G7 country on exports, wage growth and manufacturing, according to new analysis published today by the TUC.
Is it even possible to get back to growth?
perhaps there is a form of growth which it is possible to sustain – ‘green growth’ – and if there is, we all need to know what it would look like. And if it’s impossible, we need to know that too.
CO2 levels are about to hit their highest level in human history
In the next few days, and for the first time in human history, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere will hit 400 parts per million (ppm), a level long seen as critical in measuring the damage done to the earth by man-made pollution.