Prime, Policy Research in Macroeconomics

And for the cataclysmic gap between theory, policy and ecosystem collapse. [This article was first published on Ann’s Substack site, System Change, on 21st August 2023] The Financial Times’s Lex column is legendary. The editor, Jonathan Guthrie, argues that it is “the oldest and arguably most influential column of its kind” having first appeared in 1945. Lex is written by a collective – there are no author bylines because that would be inaccurate, writes Guthrie. The name is “a riff on the...

May 2023. The UK economy struggles along, shedding another 0.1% of GDP. The ‘size’ of the economy, measured as GDP, is a fraction (0.7% to be precise) greater than in May 2019, 4 long years ago. It’s still smaller than in the second half of 2019. Even worse, average real pay (i.e. after allowing for CPI inflation) is a fraction lower than it was in 2019 – in May 209, £499, in May 2023, £497. But that average masks a great deal of variety, between those whose pay has kept up with inflation...

May 2023. The UK economy struggles along, shedding another 0.1% of GDP. The ‘size’ of the economy, measured as GDP, is a fraction (0.7% to be precise) greater than in May 2019, 4 long years ago. It’s still smaller than in the second half of 2019. Even worse, average real pay (i.e. after allowing for CPI inflation) is a fraction lower than it was in 2019 – in May 209, £499, in May 2023, £497. But that average masks a great deal of variety, between those whose pay has kept up with inflation...

May 2023. The UK economy struggles along, shedding another 0.1% of GDP. The ‘size’ of the economy, measured as GDP, is a fraction (0.7% to be precise) greater than in May 2019, 4 long years ago. It’s still smaller than in the second half of 2019. Even worse, average real pay (i.e. after allowing for CPI inflation) is a fraction lower than it was in 2019 – in May 209, £499, in May 2023, £497. But that average masks a great deal of variety, between those whose pay has kept up with inflation...

Day after day, day after day,We stuck, nor breath nor motion;As idle as a painted shipUpon a painted ocean.[The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge]The UK economy remains stuck. Last Friday, the latest GDP numbers for the UK (first estimate for Q1 2023) from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicate that the UK economy is still a little shy of where it was back in late 2019, still down by 0.5% on Qs 3 and 4 of that year.  The economy in Q1 was just 0.2% larger than in...

Day after day, day after day,We stuck, nor breath nor motion;As idle as a painted shipUpon a painted ocean.[The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge]The UK economy remains stuck. Last Friday, the latest GDP numbers for the UK (first estimate for Q1 2023) from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicate that the UK economy is still a little shy of where it was back in late 2019, still down by 0.5% on Qs 3 and 4 of that year.  The economy in Q1 was just 0.2% larger than in...

Day after day, day after day,We stuck, nor breath nor motion;As idle as a painted shipUpon a painted ocean. [The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge] The UK economy remains stuck. Last Friday, the latest GDP numbers for the UK (first estimate for Q1 2023) from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicate that the UK economy is still a little shy of where it was back in late 2019, still down by 0.5% on Qs 3 and 4 of that year.  The economy in Q1 was just 0.2% larger than...

Policy Research in Macroeconomics (PRIME’s official name) is a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales. It is company no. 07438334 and its registered office is at 11a Hatch Road, Pilgrims Hatch, Brentwood, Essex, CM15 9PU.We collect cookies on this website through web analytics. For more information, please read our Privacy Policy.

Policy Research in Macroeconomics (PRIME’s official name) is a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales. It is company no. 07438334 and its registered office is at 11a Hatch Road, Pilgrims Hatch, Brentwood, Essex, CM15 9PU.We collect cookies on this website through web analytics. For more information, please read our Privacy Policy.

There are still a lot of arguments on Twitter as to whether the UK is doing ‘better’ or ‘worse’ in terms of GDP than, in particular, our EU neighbours, and the G7 in general.  (Yes we know GDP is a wholly inadequate measure, but it’s still the common currency in our political debate, and we don’t want to leave the field to the false claims of others). Today, dear old Liam Halligan, now to be found wandering the arid deserts of GB News and the Daily Torygraph, has valiantly tried to lift...