House prices fell 2.2% in December
Gary Duncan, Economics Editor

More than £100 a day was wiped off the value of a typical British home last year by the housing slump, with the average house price ending the year down by £37,178, or 18.9 per cent, the Halifax reported today.

The average house price plunged by another 2.2 per cent last month, or more than £3,500, ending the year on another bleak note with no end to the woes of the residential property market in sight, according to the nation’s biggest lender.

House prices are under intense pressure as expectations of a further crash in prices this year deter prospective buyers, and with the credit crunch keeping home loans expensive and increasingly hard to come by.

Martin Ellis, chief economist of the Halifax, said the market was set to remain under pressure this year from weak growth in earnings and the scarcity of mortgage finance.

However, Mr Ellis argued that the improving affordability of homes and waning pressure on households’ finances should help to limit the scale of this year’s fall in the market. He noted that, relative to earnings, house prices were now at their lowest levels for five and a half years.

The Halifax said that housing market activity also appeared to be stabilising, although at a low level. Estate agents reported the first increase in newly agreed home sales for 18 months during November, and the first rise in inquiries from prospective buyers since October 2006.

Manufacturing in second worst month since 1992
Gary Duncan, Economics Editor

Battered manufacturing industry suffered its second worst month since 1992 during December, a key survey showed today, fuelling expectations of a further, aggressive cut in interest rates on Thursday.

Manufacturing activity last month continued to plummet, although not quite as rapidly as during November, according to the latest CIPS/Markit purchasing managers’ survey of industry.

The survey’s headline index of activity clawed back a little ground, climbing to 34.9 for last month, from a November reading of 34.5, on a scale where any figure under 50 indicates contraction.

But economists said that this modest improvement would do little to ease pressure on the Bank of England to deliver another radical cut in interest rates this week. The Bank is expected to reduce rates from their present, historic low of just 2 per cent to a lower level never seen before in its 314-year history.

The decline in manufacturing last month indicated by the CIPS data marked its eighth monthly contraction in a row.

It came as the survey also indicated that manufacturers cut employment last month at a record pace as a disappearance of new orders signalled bleak prospects for the new year.

Concerns that the Bank may eventually confront deflation, with sustained falls in prices across the economy, were heightened as CIPS reported that manufacturers’ import csots fell for the second month in a row, while the price of goods leaving factories dropped for the first time since mid-2005.

Cóctel explosivo en Reino Unido: fuerte contracción económica y subida del paro

Las previsiones apuntan una caída del PIB del 2,5% en 2009, el mayor descenso entre las principales economías europeas.







Crisis profunda. Así está la economía británica a juzgar por los datos macroeconómicos recientemente publicados y las previsiones de los principales organismos internacionales.

Durante el cuarto trimestre de 2008, el PIB (Producto Interior Bruto) se contrajo un 1,5%, la mayor caída desde 1980 y el segundo descenso trimestral consecutivo tras la contracción del 0,6% registrada de julio a septiembre. De este modo, el país entró en recesión técnica. "Con otros dos o tres trimestres como este, estaremos hablando de depresión, no de recesión", explica el economista de Aviva Investors, Stewart Roberston, quien califica de sombrío el panorama.


Horizonte sombrío para Inglaterra


Las previsiones son poco halagüeñas. Los expertos temen que 2009 sea peor que 2008 y pronostican que la economía registre una contracción de entre el 2% y el 3%, lo que supondría el peor descenso desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial (1939-45) y el más abultado entre los principales mercados emisores de turistas en España (ver gráfico).

A esto hay que añadir las perspectivas de la Comisión Europea para la tasa de desempleo en los próximos dos años. En Reino Unido podría pasar del 5,7% de 2008 al 8,1% en 2010, un incremento muy inferior al de otros países emisores como Alemania, donde sólo aumentará un punto porcentual, desde el 7,1% al 8,1%.

El número de desempleados se sitúa actualmente en el nivel más alto desde 1997, cuando los laboristas llegaron al poder, lo que está creando desórdenes sociales en el país.


Los trabajadores de la planta de Lindsey, propiedad de Total, se pusieron en huelga la semana pasada en protesta contra la contratación de extranjeros en una nueva planta de construcción. Las pancartas de los huelguistas mostraban como eslogan las mismas palabras del primer ministro, Gordon Brown, cuando en 2007 prometió "empleos británicos para trabajadores británicos".

Brown, que actualmente insta a países de todo el mundo a no refugiarse en el proteccionismo en medio de un debilitamiento de la economía internacional, sufre presiones para garantizar el trabajo a sus compatriotas.

Iniciado por grom

No parece que a UK le este solucionando mucho el tener el control de su moneda........