“Britain ended last year as the strongest of the world’s advanced economies with growth accelerating in the six months after the Brexit vote, it was revealed overnight,” Philip Aldrick reports for The Australian. “Business activity hit a 17-month high last month, meaning that the economy grew by 2.2 per cent last year — more than the six other leading nations, including the US, Germany and Japan.”
“Far from slowing after the referendum in June, as predicted by the Treasury and Bank of England, growth appeared to have improved,” Aldrick reports. “GDP grew at 0.3 per cent and 0.6 per cent in the first two quarters of last year, compared with 0.6 per cent and an estimated 0.5 per cent in the final period.”
“Andrew Haldane, chief economist at the Bank of England, suggested that economic forecasters were facing a ‘Michael Fish moment’ over their mistaken predictions, referring to the BBC weather forecaster. Mr Haldane, comparing the profession’s failure to spot the 2008 recession to Mr Fish’s infamous assurance of ‘no hurricane’ on the eve of the great storm of 1987, said: ‘It’s a fair cop to say that the profession is to some degree in crisis,'” Aldrick reports. “Steve Baker, the Brexit-supporting MP, said that the performance of the economy since the referendum was a reproach to those who warned of dire consequences. ‘This is another moment to reflect that the horror stories that we were told simply didn’t come to pass,’ he said.”
“Britain’s robust performance means the economy heads into 2017 on solid ground. James Knightley, UK economist at ING Financial Markets, said that it ‘indicates that the UK economy has strong momentum,” Aldrick reports. “The purchasing managers’ index survey of business activity across the services, construction and manufacturing industries also pointed to further hiring by companies. Recruitment across all three industries accelerated at the fastest pace in 11 months and, in a positive sign for the months ahead, new orders in the services sector, which accounts for four fifths of the economy, hit a 17-month high.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: More Apple product users are being made in Britain with each passing day!
Incestuous, homogeneous fiefdoms of self-proclaimed expertise are always rank-closing and mutually self-defending, above all else. ― Glenn Greenwald
Go on, but don’t think you can kill my confidence. I’ve had experts [trying to do] it for years. — John James Osborne
SEE ALSO:
How Brexit is already impacting Apple – June 28, 2016
Apple and Brexit: Britain could replace Ireland for international HQ – June 27, 2016
How the UK’s Brexit vote to leave European Union affects Apple – June 25, 2016
Historic Brexit vote roils markets worldwide; Apple shares drop – June 24, 2016
Keep on dreaming, you Brexiteers. Good riddance.
Good riddance?
It sounds like they are doing better without you.
Must be fake news, the UK doing better than Germany in real terms? that’s like saying Amazon is making more profit than Apple.
The only explanation for UK doing (slightly) better in the last six months is the improved export due to the collapse of the UK pound (after the Brexit vote).
Let us not forget: UK is still a member of the EU, and will be for two more years. Literally NOTHING has changed, except some perception (and the value of the pound).
That’s exactly it. A temporary situation caused by a currency drop. Meanwhile the moment we’re out of the EU we lose our veto on the Eurozone countries insisting that banks trading in Euros be based in Eurozone countries, meaning even if we stay in the Single Market the City of London is finished. We will see how successful Brexit feels when the UK tax take suddenly drops by 15-20% as a result.
Brexiteers can then sit there masturbating over the Union Jack whilst watching the schools and hospitals getting closed or scaled down.
I lived in the UK for some time. Nothing bad about the Scots but the English still think they rule the world while most of them don’t have the money for dental care. What a bunch of losers.
Yup there’s an intelligent objective view for all to see. That is about as far off the mark as it is possible to be. There certainly is not the inherent poverty here that you see in areas of the US and indeed the south east is one of the richest regions in the World. You can express your ignorant prejudices as much as you like but we are doing just fine thanks without your pathetic racial and indeed racist typecasting that has no basis in reality beyond your feeble bigotry.
If you are American then you probably ought to know anti American feeling amongst your ‘mates’ in Scotland is far more prevalent than in the rest of the U.K due to their deeper socialist leanings. While if you are European you will, or should know that wherever the people rather than self serving often bent politicians, have a say, anti EU feelings are generally very strong and often in a majority. Even in France which after all in cooperation with Germany, runs the the whole corrupt edifice for their own benefit almost as a private club, negativity is rife. As for Germany it’s economic power relies on the EU papering to it, and as such whatever Merkel parrots, it’s industry is scared stiff of losing such a big market in particular for its upmarket Mercs and Beemers which says something about the level of consumer wealth beyond any weird wish for super plastic smiles in this country.
The UK gave up making anything, and more poverty ensued. Selling out isn’t the answer.
You need a lot of words to show your frustration. What a waste of energy.
Good luck on your happy little island.
Oh pardon me. I mean: your great empire.
I have to give you one thing though: the best music comes from England.
It’s anything but happy right now. We’re as split down the middle as you lot are. As for empires, you’re welcome to that concept. All it does is give a nation the idea that everything it does is the best, leading to its eventual downfall. It took us 50 years to recover from losing ours, and even then there’s still a bunch of idiots who believe we’ve still got it. Hence Brexit.
Yeah, I was just kidding. It really is a shame UK leaves the EU. The young and intelligent got screwed over by ignorant, frustrated and mostly old people. Sorry to see you go.
Yes, the UK economy is great at the moment. I myself ordered a couple of things at UK webshops. I could profit from the pound devaluation and the lack of import tariffs because the UK is still part of the EU. I guess many thought the same. The EU economy will get hurt when Brexit is a fact. But losing a 500 million people market is a much bigger loss for the UK. Too bad the idiots won.
Right! And also this…
http://www.vox.com/world/2017/1/4/14165372/uk-inequality-ceo-worker
Yes totally different to the US of course where the filter down concept hit its zenith. The French call it the ‘Anglo Saxon economy’ as a derogatory term indeed, relating it however to the US as being its central instigator, certainly not Britain who under Thatcher simply copied the idea after years of a more socially orientated approach that was seen as being too restrictive.
Truth is, the Brits have a history of strength from Empire to even now.
The EU needs them more than the Brits needing the EU. The Brits are the ones with a healthy economy and loser countries like the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) need a sugar daddy to support their lost “economies,” if you can even call it that.
Good for the Brits to leave. It’s like having a bunch of loser relatives with no jobs hitting you up for cash, but with no plans to pay you back. The Brits finally said, pay your own way.
Yeah, right, Jambro. . .It’s the EU commission (individuals who govern the group forr the countries) who took advantage, not the countries themselves as you mentioned. Know what you are talking about before stating anything. It just points out how stupid you are!
CALB, I hope you’re not saying it was the leaders of the EU who were/are responsible for how Greece operates? From what I’ve read, “sugar daddy” is in the Grecian mindset.
So now short term GDP growth rate is being conflated with health?
Believe me, Britain’s economy is far from robust.
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha – what an excellent joke! Except that Britain is still a member of the EU and will be for at least 2 years. What happens after they’re out is another story. Aldrich is an idiot. Not only is the UK growth rate behind several EU states – even Ireland and Iceland are doing far better (perhaps seen from Australia these are not “most advanced economies”)! The mea culpa of the eminent economists has nothing to do with economics, only that they got it wrong with the Brexit outcome. And yes, that Jambro is an idiot, too.
Difficult to work out who the idiots are here with all the noncence being spoken. Iceland and Ireland untill recently were basket cases, Iceland was kept afloat by Russian money and subsequent Scandinavian support due to the fear of those consequences. Ireland was supported by Britain and the EU to keep it afloat while its tax regime that powered its growth in the first place has now been challenged, Apple fans should know all about that. However more importantly these small countries with small populations with largish natural resources, be it farming cheap labour or fish have obviously had a recovery spurt thereafter from such a low base. It is hardly comparable to a large sophisticated top 6 economy be it Britain, France, Germany or others who’s growth and potential operate in a totally different way on the economic scale. Britains growth has been towards the top for some years now, France having serious problems too complex to go into here while Germany has been forced to effectively expend much wealth on keeping the basket cases alive and the economic union together. In fact that and fear of Russia is for the most part all that foes keep the EU functioning and United.
Fact is Britain is the second biggest contributor to the EU budget and always has been which says something about our relative wealth and the French ability to stitch things up for its own benefit. I have always been a supporter of the EU in principle but I am not jaundiced enough to not recognise its failings especially in modern times, where the world is do very different yo when we entered. Britain needed to be in at the beginning to be an equal partner in what is a Franco/German club but having not been, it is by no means clear any more which choice is the better one, in or out. As for US desire for us to stay that is for the most part simply to use us as their poodle doing its dirty work as an inside agent.
“More Apple product users are being made in Britain with each passing day!”
Have you seen the Apple price hikes in Britain? Mac Pro alone went from one kidney to both kidneys + lung.
The basic premise is that people working together can achieve more, so I’m sceptical about Britain leaving the EU.
Britain is still a member of the EU for two more years, and many (especially the Polish) work as many hours as possible to earn as much as they can while they still can. Businesses try to fill as many orders in Europe as they can while they still can – after all the fall in the value of the pound made their wares more competitive.
But for the future things look very different. Costs will rise (borders mean customs officals, tax, more paper work, maybe tariffs), and exporting to Europe still means you need to comply with European law and regulations (so where is the benefit of being out?). The EU brought a lot of worker’s rights, health benefits, and environmental protection laws to the UK – in many regards the UK will now be set back 30 years.
Brexit isn’t here yet. Article 50 hasn’t even been triggered. So the UK should enjoy being in the EU while they still can.
But that Brexiters claim that this means everything is fine is as disingenuous as their claim of giving another 350 million pound to the NHS each week.
“the economy grew by 2.2 per cent last year ”
And post-recession growth continues to be anemic in many of the major economies. Woohoo! Way to go austerity!
Austerity is just a term that means pay for what you use. The problem with democracy is that everyone from every end of the political spectrum chooses to have services now and pass the costs to the next generation. Fiscal sanity needs to kick in sometime. Call it whatever you want, the debt has to be controlled.
Since when do Humans stay within the margins?
As far as I know the Brexit is still ahead of the British. The mechanism to leave EU has to be activated yet. So speaking of “after Brexit” seems out of place to me right now. A hard and nasty awakening for the UK will come once they realize the full implications of their vote when the ‘oh so horrible’ ties to European continent will be severed for real.
After Marine Le Pen is elected in France, that should put the final nail in the EU’s coffin.
“A new world order is fading from view…”
Some useful CLUES:
1) Brexit, the vote, happened. Scotland disagrees with it and may break with the UK and stay in the EU.
2) Brexit, the actual exit of the UK from the EU has NOT EVEN STARTED YET!. Watch for it maybe to start in March, 2017 and maybe complete in 2019. The Conservatives are getting a lot of flak for the Brexit vote and maybe will buckle and not do it.
3) ANY ‘world’s strongest economy after Brexit’ chatter is about an economy BEFORE any actual starting of an actual British exit from the UK. IOW: NOT RELATED!
4) I.E. the point of this article is perceptual, not real. A typical story of human behavior. 😛
Correction: BEFORE any actual starting of an actual British exit from the EU.
That’s EU.
That’s my coffee. Must wake up now.
Who the F cares. And what does this have to do with Apple news ?
I don’t think they’ve exactly exited the ECU yet, they’ve just voted to do so. Also one big glaring issue is the health care system.