Wednesday, March 10, 2010

U.K. Economy Clearly Contracted In January

While Britain, like most other countries don't publish monthly GDP data, it seems very clear that its economy contracted in January as retail sales, net exports and industrial production all contracted.

Some of this was clearly attributable to the temporary weather factor, but it also illustrates that the underlying economy is weak. Now that the weather factor is disappearing, it remains to be seen how just how weak it is.