UK economy “holding up well” says CBI chief

Director General of the CBI, Digby Jones, says the UK economy is holding up well and that there is a danger of the UK talking itself into a recession.

In upbeat mood Mr Jones claimed that the UK economy was basically sound and was in good shape to ride out an economic slowdown.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Mr Jones blamed the media, and financial journalists in particular, for being overly pessimistic about the economy: “Financial reporting seems to be saying that things are going down, but actually the fundamentals of people’s businesses - turnover, activity, orders - are holding up across sectors.”

Mr Jones, who is due to address the Liberal Democrat conference on Tuesday, said that the biggest concern was that Britain might be talking itself into a recession that wasn’t really happening.

However, while admitting that the CBI’s most recent industrial trends survey has clearly indicated that there exist all the signs to indicate an industrial slowdown, Mr Jones said that with low interest rates, low unemployment and low inflation many companies were in much better shape to weather a recession than they had been in the early 90s.

He added that there was a big difference between a slowdown with a challenging business environment, and a recession. He said people should not be talking themselves into something that wasn’t “actually there”. (SP)