The public finances are on the mend, recording a healthy surplus in January on booming tax receipts. Employment is at record levels, with real wage growth at a two-year high. Despite a global slowdown, Britain expanded 1.4 per cent last year, recording just 4 per cent unemployment. Yet Germany and France are on the brink of recession, the Italian economy is contracting and eurozone joblessness is twice as high.
The UK has economic problems – and let no-one say we don’t hear about them, given the relentless drumbeat of anti-Brexit media negativity. Just as the economy held up after the 2016 referendum, though – belying Treasury warnings of “an immediate and profound economic shock” – there are signs of defiant economic strength once more and confidence in our long-term future.
Norway’s $1 trillion (£753 billion) sovereign wealth fund, among the world’s most respected investors, has just confirmed it will boost its UK holdings.
“Over time, our UK allocation will increase,” said Yngve Slyngstad, the Norwegian Fund’s CEO.
“With our 30-year plus time horizon, current political discussions don’t change our view,” he added, reaffirming his commitment to Britain even in the case of a “no-deal” Brexit.
This kind of clear-sighted, grown-up analysis from professionals contrasts starkly with endless doom-mongering we get from subsidy-hungry politicos at the CBI. It’s precisely because Britain will thrive after Brexit that we attracted record foreign direct investment last year, beating the US, with only China attracting more. Even British start-ups raised almost £8 billion in venture capital during 2018 – some 70 per cent more than their French and Germany counterparts.
Boeing has opened its first manufacturing plant in Europe – in Sheffield. Technology-driven investment is piling in – not just to London but to Manchester and the North East too. And, as Brexit-bashing stories about planes not flying are trumped by reality, investors from China to the Middle East are flocking to a country just judged by Forbes magazine as the “best place in the world to do business” for the second year in a row.
Source: Britain’s economy is set to boom and become the largest in Europe – because of Brexit : The Telegraph
61chrissterry 