Member Article

Output optimistic for North East businesses

The economic outlook for the North East remains optimistic for exporters, who have the opportunity to make a real impact on growth, according to a Yorkshire Bank Economist.

Export levels from across the whole of the UK are rising, and Nick Parsons believes that the North East could benefit from this positive trend.

Speaking to an audience of 50 businesses he said: “The great hope for exporters, including those from strong manufacturing areas such as the North East, is that they can repeat the performance of 1994 to 1996 when exports rose an average nine per cent per year.

“Signs in very recent data show a pick up in UK exports in which goods represent 60
per cent of sales and this shows that, around the world, there is still strong demand
for the high quality goods made in the UK.”

In the talk, Global Headwinds But UK Recovery Not Blown Off Course, Nick Parsons
added that opportunities for exporters were among bright spots in an economic
outlook beset by the issues facing the Eurozone.

He continued: “These strong headwinds are unlikely to disappear in the next three to six
months and it will be at least a couple of years before the UK returns to a reduced
trend of GDP growth of about two per cent.

“Even so, we are looking for the UK economy to grow by about 0.4 per cent this year and it should rise to around 1.5 per cent in 2013; although it may not achieve the trend rate until 2015.”

The region has witnesses economic growth for three consecutive years, although the recovery is set to be far slower than those in the 1980s and 1990s.

Mr Parsons added: “This is because, unlike those decades when recovery was stimulated by the production of North Sea oil, council house sales, privatisations and a boom in global trading, this time we’ve suffered economic shocks: the Japanese earthquake and tsunami which disrupted supply chains, the problems in the Eurozone and a 50 per cent rise in energy prices.

“However, we are seeing growing overseas demand for UK exports, and it is clear that the North East can, and will, play a role in the UK’s economic recovery.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .