Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa June 2014 | Page 56

UNITED KINGDOM

BY MIKE SMUTS

Securing the UK Recovery
Insights in how to stabilise the British economy

T

he Governor of the Bank of England, Mark
Carney, stated during the BoE’s latest Inflation
Report briefing on May the 14th that: “Securing
the recovery is like making it through the qualifying
rounds of the World Cup. That is an achievement,
but not the ultimate goal. The real tournament is just
beginning, and its prize is a strong, sustained and
balanced expansion. Across the bank, we are setting
policy in order to help win that prize for the good of
the people of the United Kingdom.”

expects unemployment in the UK to fall faster than
they did in February. The jobless rate was 6.8% in
March, according to official data, and officials see it
reaching 5.9% in the second quarter of 2017. In the
previous report, three months ago they thought
joblessness would be 6.3% in early 2017.

According to Mr Carney, The Bank forecasts GDP to
grow by 3.4% this year - unchanged from its previous
prediction - but increased the target for next year from
2.7% to 2.9% . However, the forecast for 2016 has
fallen from 2.9% to 2.8%.
Governor Mark Carney said the economy had
‘edged closer’ to the point when interest rates would
need to rise, but indicated this remained some way
off. He reiterated that any increases would be ‘gradual’
and that the rate “may stay at historically low levels for
some time.”
The remarks will be welcomed by those with
mortgages and led economists to speculate that the
bank could hold off on a rate rise even until after the
next election - due in 12 months’ time.
One significant change in the latest forecasts is that
the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) now
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June 2014 SA Real Estate Investor

The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney
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