There’s a real mixed bag of economic data appearing these days! Retail sales in January were at their worst for 15 years, yet revised figures just released by the Office for National Statistics show that manufacturing output grew by 0.9% in December. Similarly, the industrial production measure, which includes mining and energy, rose by 0.5%; to put that in perspective, industrial production accounts for around 17% of the UK economy.
At the same time, after growth of 0.1% in the UK economy during the last quarter of 2009, and gloomy talk of a double-dip recession, we’ve had the Bank of England’s quarterly Inflation Report predicting growth of 3.2% by the last quarter of 2011 – so that’s something to look forward to!
The bottom line is that although nobody really knows what’s likely to happen in the coming months, the consensus is that there is likely to be a slow (although not necessarily steady) return to growth in 2010/11.
At 4CM we’re already seeing signs of optimism, as clients start to remove the budget constraints that have been in place since early last year. As a result, we’re now working on longer term marketing and media campaigns that will strongly position our clients and enable them to capitalise on their target markets as growth returns to the economy.
Green shoots in Spring? 
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet nascetur Cum laoreet tempus lorem ipsum dolor. 
Morbi id interdum elit Phasellus a. Adipiscing urna dictumst sem pellen. 
Augue Donec orci nunc sit Morbi id interdum elit Phasellus a Adipis. 