International Trade Blog

The number of job appointments has increased for the second month in row. Sound like good news? It sort of is, but the overall situation in UK is far from picture perfect.

Although the unemployment level is the highest since 1995 that last two months have shown good promise. While job market is still very far away from booming one positive fact can be mentioned. It seems than the rate of job losses has reached its peak and that means that the unemployment levels will not drastically increase. Even more good news is that there is appearing more and more permanent and periodical new job opening which can be directly connected to the increasing stability. Many companies have understood that the country has withstood the hardest blow of the global economic crisis and has entered the path of recovery. The faster the stability level will grow the faster will the job market expand.

While the statement that the global crisis has been defeated did no actual good for the general population these news give at least a small ray of hope. Now at least the people have something to look for. While finding a good job is still a very hard undertaking at least it is possible no matter the chances. Three months ago this was not so. We have to grab hold of every little piece of hope or otherwise we might crack and give in to depression. Let’s hope that we will receive more and more good news all over the world.

The major experts predict that by 2010 the economy of UK will recover. A bold prediction you might say, but it actually seems that they might be right. At least it is positive thinking finally.

The experts forecast a 1.1% growth of economy in 2010. Compared to 0.6% forecast this year the increase is clearly visible. Unemployment levels will reach 3 million as opposed to the forecasted 3.2 millions. A recovery seams very possible, but it won’t be easy to sustain it due to the large UK debts. Although not clearly visible, but most experts are sure that the economy has already started to recover. This trend can be seen not only in UK, but also other countries. So there must be some hard truth behind it all. The experts agree that this recession is somewhat worse than the one in 1990, but not as worse as the one in 1980. Now the only things that could slow down the recovery are; high unemployment, low consumer spending and fragile banking sector. The general idea behind decreasing government debt is to cut back public spending. Of course that will be quite an unpopular action, but is a necessary thing to do.

In general these are very good news. Of course the recovery will not occur in one day. I think we all understand that. It is a long term project which can be achieved only by working together towards a common goal. Let’s hope that 2010 is the year when the global economic crisis will be defeated all across the world.

The first step towards recovery from the economic crisis is spending money, more precisely spending money in the domestic market. UK seems to be moving in the right direction as retail sales keep increasing. This means that people in UK are again willing to spend money.

As British Retail Consortium officials have stated the main reason for this trend might be the rather bad weather in the second half of July. Apparently people are deciding not to go on a foreign vacation, but rather spend their money on home improvement. The extensive discounts have also had a positive effect on sales. The increase could be bigger, but it is somewhat hindered by the rising unemployment. The same trends apply to food and clothing sales. This is nothing strange as I have stated before that in times when people are not able to afford expensive and exclusive items, they rather spend their money on cheaper everyday stuff and with that somewhat improve the quality of life. So this is why sectors like food and clothing are less affected by the overwhelming global economic crisis.

So due to these facts some retailers seem to think that this may be the beginning of the end of recession. But as long as there will be the fear of sudden unemployment and salary cuts the improvement tempo will be fairly slow. None the less this means good news for everyone. It is possible that we have passed the deepest point of the economic crisis. As the stability returns the crisis diminishes. Let’s hope that UK is not the only place where positive things are beginning to show on the horizon.

UK has always been a major player in the international market. At one point in the history Great Britain came very close to the status of World Empire and they did not achieve this by only military power. Their most powerful weapon was probably the worldwide trade network. Although they lost their colonies and foreign territories, such as India, Pakistan and Australia, they still maintain important connections and English businessman are still influential.
Although UK is a part of European Union, the British themselves do not consider to be European because they have an island of their own and grand heritage. But English business traditions have greatly affected the business traditions of their European counterparts. We can go even one step further because English business traditions have affected business traditions in the whole world.

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