Promoted content: Brexit – where does the economy go from here?

There is some irony in the fact that in our first month as Make UK, we are facing the last month as a member of the European Union unless political events overtake this column. In the wake of the Spring Statement yesterday and the vote to take ‘no deal’ off the table it remains to be seen where the political debate and the economy go from here.

As far as the economy goes, having made the transition to the new name successfully at our annual conference last month, we followed with our first quarter survey which paints an interesting snapshot of the shifting sands of world trade. While the extent of stockpiling by British manufacturers is clearly evident, providing a temporary boost to output, what is happening to demand from abroad is no less important, especially where our biggest export market is concerned.

Since the heady days of 2017 when there was a synchronised upswing across all major global markets, global trade has been on a gradually downward trend with the balance in export orders at the end of last year half what they were in the previous quarter and just a third of the level seen at the end of 2017.