End of the beginning as firms feel the recession 'less bad'
Apr 15 2009 by Karen Dent, The Journal
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The latest survey was carried out amid some minor signs of economic improvement, including March’s small increase in house prices and the financial markets’ favourable reception of the measures agreed on at the G20 economic summit.
Richard Slack, a reader in accountancy at the Business School, who co-wrote the report with Professor of finance Jackie Harvey, said any signs of recovery were very fragile. He said: “Probably it is reached a bottoming off at the moment in terms of is there any further to fall? There are visible indicators of that.
“The FTSE-100, while struggling, is holding around 4,000. Property prices appear to have bottomed out and there are signs with the increase in mortgage applications and offers that the housing market has reached a level that is sustainable. But clearly this is still a difficult situation.”
North East Chamber of Commerce policy director Andrew Sugden said: “Businesses [are] reporting the situation as generally ‘less bad’ than recent months, but still far from broadly positive.
“Confidence is bound to remain shaky for some time and for this reason NECC is calling on next week’s Budget to introduce support for short term working and provide incentives to unlock much-needed investment.”
CBI assistant regional director Liz Mayes said: “Conditions remain tough for business. Our most recent manufacturing survey shows that the past six months have proved especially challenging for many UK manufacturers, who have been hit by plunging domestic and global demand.”
Latest figures for the region show unemployment running at 8.6%, the highest percentage in the UK. There were 109,000 people claiming benefits, up by 34,000 on a year ago, according to statistics for the three months to January.
