What recession...?

BREWSTERS · Dec 2, 2011

Some (luxury) products still doing well;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-15995924

Oh look, whats this...?

peter_w · Dec 2, 2011

Exactly, we aren't in a recession.

tifosi · Dec 2, 2011

peter_w said:
Exactly, we aren't in a recession.

Not until next year anyway! :/

Aiden Roberts · Dec 2, 2011

Whisky is great to drown your sorrows with when your business or personal life is falling apart, one man's loss is another man's gain.

Drinkaware- I am not promoting alcohol

BREWSTERS · Dec 2, 2011

peter_w said:
Exactly, we aren't in a recession.

I bet we are - figures will get twisted and fudged to show what suits.

Like house prices; Halifax and others provide figures showing that the market is flat or slight increase some months - I keep an eye on property prices daily and all I see is lumps coming off - 10%, 20% - some houses are less than 50% original asking prices in less than 1 year.

Retired_member41 · Dec 2, 2011

Officially we are in a recession. Doesn't matter what anyone's opinion is. The rules and figures dictate it and they say we are in recession.

The Tories will do and say anything they can to say otherwise as half the Tory side of the house is on record somewhere saying we will never have a double dip.

(grrr some boffin on the news explained we are in a recession so i championed what he said)

Seems brassneck below is correct. No recession yet.

KarlM · Dec 2, 2011

Alcohol does not count, everyone that likes a drink finds money for booze

lol

Brassneck · Dec 2, 2011

Techincally - we aren't in a recession (at the moment) - just a period of very low growth.

Recessions in the UK are defined as " as 2 successive quarters of negative growth. (or 6 months)" All the stats are here - http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_238651.pdf - officially GDP increased by 0.5 per cent over the last 12 months compared to range of 2 to 3 per cent in normal times.

aZooZa · Dec 2, 2011

A recession is good for our industry. If you don't understand that, you're not really in the business.

peter_w · Dec 2, 2011

Caz said:
Officially we are in a recession.

According to who?

We haven't been in a "recession" since 2009.

BREWSTERS · Dec 2, 2011

Gotta love that 'negative' growth....sooo much better than 'decline'.

I don't believe the official figures.

When neccessities, food, fuel, heating have all gone up by double digits while wages have remained virtually static, and lending is in decline....how can any growth occur? The only way is if people were spending their savings at a huge rate and I can't see that.

Brassneck · Dec 2, 2011

BREWSTERS said:
Gotta love that 'negative' growth....sooo much better than 'decline'.

I don't believe the official figures.

When neccessities, food, fuel, heating have all gone up by double digits while wages have remained virtually static, and lending is in decline....how can any growth occur? The only way is if people were spending their savings at a huge rate and I can't see that.

Read the commentary on http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_238651.pdf and you will see it's mainly the service sector responsible for the growth. Apparently telecoms and hotels/restaurants did well.

It may feel like a recession for many, but officially it is not according to the way recessions are measured. It's very unlikely the official statistics would be that wrong. I worked as a Government Statistician for 20 years and the GDP series is extremely robust.

Stephen.

websaway · Dec 2, 2011

BREWSTERS said:
Gotta love that 'negative' growth....sooo much better than 'decline'.

I don't believe the official figures.

When neccessities, food, fuel, heating have all gone up by double digits while wages have remained virtually static, and lending is in decline....how can any growth occur? The only way is if people were spending their savings at a huge rate and I can't see that.

I think maybe they are, alot of people are living off the fat, fat which didn't exist in such abundance in past recessions. Unlike past recessions there has been an unusual amount of retained wealth.

scooter · Dec 2, 2011

karlm said:
Alcohol does not count, everyone that likes a drink finds money for booze lol

That is uncannily true. I live in a small town with a population of 5,000. I'm friends with the local supermarket manager. Their sales have been down on average 8K a month for a long time now. All departments showing as down apart from one. Alcohol. It has risen.

.

boxerdog · Dec 2, 2011

I think if you have to "find" money just to have a drink you have a problem

scooter · Dec 2, 2011

boxerdog said:
I think if you have to "find" money just to have a drink you have a problem

Yeah, you do. You're not making enough money. :mrgreen:

.

FagEnd · Dec 3, 2011

karlm said:
Alcohol does not count, everyone that likes a drink finds money for booze lol

Are you a jock by any chance?

retired_member33 · Dec 4, 2011

scooter said:
That is uncannily true. I live in a small town with a population of 5,000. I'm friends with the local supermarket manager. Their sales have been down on average 8K a month for a long time now. All departments showing as down apart from one. Alcohol. It has risen.

.

Its a fact that during a recession people tend to spend more money on alchol, drugs and hookers as a way to forget their everyday money issues.

FagEnd · Dec 4, 2011

ProDomains said:
Its a fact that during a recession people tend to spend more money on alchol, drugs and hookers as a way to forget their everyday money issues.

That's why I own a few off licences, I'm a drug dealer and a pimp. Forget domaining, the real money is in the high street...