UK economy continues to rebound upwards - but yet to cross pre covid levels.

[Juggy777]

I wasn’t expecting UK’s economy to rebound back so soon, but it seems that their economy has been rising upwards for the third straight month, and in July it rose by 6.6% which is a big positive sign for UK’s citizens, however it’s pertinent to note that their economy has yet to breach the pre covid levels.

Furthermore the scheme to retain jobs during Covid is ending on October 31st, and UK’s ex PM Gordon Brown feels that this scheme needs to be extended otherwise UK’s economy can suffer another setback.

Lastly what do you’ll think should the UK government continue with the job retention scheme till covid lasts, or should they end it and there won’t be any visible effects on their economy?.

The UK economy grew by 6.6% in July, according to official figures, but output remains far below pre-pandemic levels.
It is the third month in a row that the economy has expanded.

Meanwhile, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is due to end on 31 October.
Former prime minister Gordon Brown, warned that ending the furlough scheme was a "cliff-edge" that could trigger "a tsunami of unemployment".

Source:

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54113948

[jackg]

I think the furlough plan should be replaced by something else. Maybe a job retention scheme in a few sectors such as hospitality and tourism.

There's been a lot of free money being handed out so I'm not sure I was fully on board with the furlough scheme to start with (it mightve been wiser to have a system where you upload your outgoings for the month and reclaiming that (with a budget of 60-80%). The furlough scheme itself puts doctors and nurses in a situation where they're essentially volunteers imo too along with other sectors that have had to maintain their operations.

[Coyster]

It's a dilemma really for the government in U.K. to either continue covering 80% of furloughed workers salaries for their employers or drop the scheme and watch the unemployment numbers rise. Though the job retention scheme in the U.K doesn't cover everyone and not every employer decided to join the furlough scheme, but it has helped to keep people's jobs for them, while they still get paid for not working.

Definitely the government can't continue this scheme for too long, but I'll root for an extension, to prolly end of the year; I say so because there are countries close to launching a vaccine for the virus by the end of the year; and the reason why businesses closed and there was even a furlough retention scheme in the first place is because of the pandemic. Beginning of next year could see workers in the U.K gradually return to work on a full time basis, and the companies they work for up and running. But if the government stops the scheme right now, employers will lay off their workers in mass, and businesses could go insolvent and fold up, leaving the employees with no work place to return to, when things return to normal.

[arayde]

Pretty fast recover this time. Money printer is working but what did it cost?

[jackg]

Pretty fast recover this time. Money printer is working but what did it cost?

Not sure they printed it, they borrowed £1+ trillion as if they were trying to make it worse than the last crisis debt wise... I think they were at a breakeven before this so they might have spent the other trillion they recovered too.

Not that debts really that bad if it's heald by other countries - they'll be deswaded from sanctioning you if you owe them and are paying.

[audaciousbeing]

On evaluation with other countries, UK is doing very well in terms of getting back the economy on the right track and with the positive outlook, it shows that the future is not farther away which can not be said about other countries of the world because several countries are still grappling about tests, control and not even close to opening up the economy for recovery. So, its a good one, although not where it used to be prior to covid, but hope that its getting better is enough to rejoice about in this scenario.

[avikz]

UK is indeed coming back to normal. Currently I am working for an UK client and their offices have opened up already. We are also receiving good news about increase in sales as well. Overall it is a positive sign we are getting.

This was bound to happen and that's not only for UK but for the entire world. COVID was a perfect storm on humanity and now the human civilization has started to adopt the new way of life! It will take time but eventually everything will come back to normal. Fingers crossed!

[Genemind]

UK is indeed coming back to normal. Currently I am working for an UK client and their offices have opened up already. We are also receiving good news about increase in sales as well. Overall it is a positive sign we are getting.

This was bound to happen and that's not only for UK but for the entire world. COVID was a perfect storm on humanity and now the human civilization has started to adopt the new way of life! It will take time but eventually everything will come back to normal. Fingers crossed!

How I wish our country could also do the same wise moves but our economy is actually dropping down continuously. The recovery of the UK is the reflection of how well their government is handling the pandemic situation. Our country is in a deep dept right now yet we're still in dilemma mainly not because of the pandemic alone but because of corruption during this situation. I hope more countries could survive during this pandemic period.

[electronicash]

is there any other option than continuing the job retention scheme?
since our governments are expecting the coming of the vaccine i don't see any reason as to why not extend everything while the covid19 is still devastating the public though the lockdowns. if they have to bailout small companies, meat farms and vegetable producers, why not. its necessary to have them running now and after the crisis. people in the first world countries are luckier than how we are in the 3rd world.

[Kez1817]

UK is indeed coming back to normal. Currently I am working for an UK client and their offices have opened up already. We are also receiving good news about increase in sales as well. Overall it is a positive sign we are getting.

This was bound to happen and that's not only for UK but for the entire world. COVID was a perfect storm on humanity and now the human civilization has started to adopt the new way of life! It will take time but eventually everything will come back to normal. Fingers crossed!

That's great for UK but what about the other country,are they also like UK which already recovering from the pandemic? I hope so, but in my country still suffering until now. The new normal is not good and difficult to adopt, that's why i still keep on praying that we can move again to a normal life like before.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

I wouldn't have expected UK's economy to have rebounded to what it was prior to COVID-19, but 6.6% growth in a month is fantastic news. 

Unfortunately I don't live in the UK.  My country (the US) hasn't been faring quite as well last time I heard, though I've been lax in keeping up with news about the overall economy here.  The stock market (or at least the S&P 500) had hit pre-pandemic levels recently, but I think it's fallen just below that as of today--still, that's not too bad IMO.  Unemployment remains high, but I'm still hoping that's a temporary effect of the lockdown and will improve in the upcoming months.  Keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

Pretty fast recover this time. Money printer is working but what did it cost?

LOL.  I'm not sure how much the Monopoly money had to do with this July data for the UK, but I admire your cynicism.

[Yatsan]

That was really a good news that UK is now undergoing on the fast pace of doing their economic recovery which is indeed a great positive outlook most specially that most countries around the world are still suffering or having a difficulty on managing how to control the number of infected cases being tabulated daily and at the same time managing to open up the economy step by step to some how enter the phase of recovery which is really needed for it cannot be maintained to last up longer doing nothing and just waiting for the vaccine to be discovered. Again, it was really a great news to be known that UK have been doing so good on its economic recovery which I do hope other countries would also be able to do as soon as possible for the sake of their people.

[palle11]

I see that the UK economy is recovery with the challenges of covid-19 but on the other side to the currency against USD, it has dropped slightly since about two weeks after it made good gains last month. In fact, the major EU currencies are dropping against the dollar. I'm yet to see the recovery reflect on the dollar.

[so98nn]

Pretty fast recover this time. Money printer is working but what did it cost?

Not sure they printed it, they borrowed £1+ trillion as if they were trying to make it worse than the last crisis debt wise... I think they were at a breakeven before this so they might have spent the other trillion they recovered too.

Not that debts really that bad if it's heald by other countries - they'll be deswaded from sanctioning you if you owe them and are paying.

If they are able to recover their economy with that kind of money then in this case borrowed money is far better than worsening the current situation. At least they have thought through the plans to overcome their economic crisis based on the fact that they will easily dissolve any interest rates and principle amount borrowed in near future.

The major factor that help UK to cop up is their currency value being the highest throughout the world. Setting up trillion pounds debt but with master plan to reset multi-trillions of business in the upcoming days, that's what the Queen might have said on their meet up. 

[RealMalatesta]

We will have to spend a lot more time to reach above the pre covid levels, that was some horrible pandemic that affected the whole world, it is not easy to pass those levels, obviously we will have to spend a big time to go above that level.

However rebounding is important, it shows that it is not going worse and right now not going worse is something we can accept, as long as it is not going worse, I am fine with even not going better as well. Same goes crypto, if we stay around 10-12 thousand levels and not go above but not go below that level I am fine with it, that is of course until 2021, after 2021 we have to see some sort of improvement both in economy and bitcoin price as well because we can't just assume that the world will be like this forever .

[coolcoinz]

I see that the UK economy is recovery with the challenges of covid-19 but on the other side to the currency against USD, it has dropped slightly since about two weeks after it made good gains last month. In fact, the major EU currencies are dropping against the dollar. I'm yet to see the recovery reflect on the dollar.

I believe that with election comming up we'll have to wait for the Dollar to return to its highs. The time of uncertainty that accompanies the election usually influences national currencies.  We also have to keep in mind that in Spring 2020 USD was at its highest level against EUR since January 2017. Corrections after ATH levels are nothing unusual.

[20kevin20]

My country (the US) hasn't been faring quite as well last time I heard, though I've been lax in keeping up with news about the overall economy here.  The stock market (or at least the S&P 500) had hit pre-pandemic levels recently, but I think it's fallen just below that as of today--still, that's not too bad IMO.

Do you think markets are going to stay up there for long? I am quite worried about all the newly printed money, unemployment levels and the debt some countries got into this year. The main issue I see is, the markets shouldn't be able to recover quickly from it - which makes me think this "recovery" is only a facade. Feels like the repercussions just haven't hit yet.. or is there something I'm missing?