2012 Economic forecast by Marcus Wright, Economist, RBS

BFS Edinburgh Forum
21st Mar 2012
Roxburghe Hotel, Edinburgh, Edinburgh
View details

BFS Glasgow Forum
25th Apr 2012
Grand Central Hotel, Glasgow, Glasgow
View details

Young Company Finance (YCF) would like to offer Business Forum members a three-month free of charge trial subscription to their publication.

email jonathan@ycf.co.uk and quote Business Forum Scotland.

Business Forum is there to help new and growing companies. It works. Use it. Donald MacRae, Lloyds Banking Group

The UK is facing a difficult 2012 with ongoing government spending cuts, elevated unemployment and weak income growth. The weak growth outlook for the UK's key trading partners of the EU and the US will weigh on its export sector.
The Eurozone sovereign debt crisis will continue to weigh on global growth in 2012 and will add an unwelcome downside risk to a struggling UK economy.
In the longer-term, fiscal union across the Eurozone is necessary to solve the crisis. Recent steps taken by European leaders in this direction are just the start of this process.
In the short-term, the ECB needs to more forcefully stand behind the sovereign debt markets of peripheral Eurozone countries. However, it still appears unwilling or unable to do so.
The risk has always been that the feedback into the real economy from the Eurozone debt crisis manifests itself via another credit crunch. At the moment, the signals suggest this is happening across the Eurozone.
China, which has been the key driver of global growth in recent years, will see its growth slow but remain elevated.