Prepare to be pleasantly surprised by the speed of next year’s recovery
New technologies and the collapse of outdated businesses offer hope of a giant leap forward in productivity
20 December 2020 • 6:00am
Infection rates spiralling, a renewed and increasingly severe lockdown, a European Union trade deal once more in the balance – for the economy, things could scarcely look more grim as we head into the Christmas week. Yet sometimes it is important to look through the storms of the moment to what may lie beyond.
The UK has its own particular problems for now as it struggles with the fallout from its divorce with Europe. Deal or no deal, this will inevitably mean the UK is slower to recover from the pandemic than otherwise, absent large-scale fiscal stimulus, a policy option that needs to be high on the list of considerations by Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, for post-Brexit Britain.