Sluggish recovery to stay, predicts Lynch
The UK's economic recovery will continue in the worrying "L" shape during 2012. That's what Ron Lynch, the Institute of Directors' (IoD) regional director for the East Midlands, told Insider.
Lynch said that the "L" shaped slow recovery was likely to be a sticking point during the next year.
"The key point is that you can't see the road ahead in 2012 looking through the rear view mirror," he said.
"When you look forward, the eurocrisis is still sitting in the middle of the road and we're closing at speed. In this country, quantitative easing by the Bank of England is a very powerful weapon, but the European Central Bank can't run the same policy.
"Instead it's trying to undertake QE through the back door, by lending to banks."
However, he said that the weak labour market would have "a silver lining", which was that the region could see an increase in the number of entrepreneurs starting up their own businesses.
Lynch also predicted that while some markets will remain weak throughout the year, ITC, key infrastructure and green technologies look set to grow.
"In these austere times it's difficult to see where and when we'll see any evidence of genuine economic recovery," he added.
"However, the major hope has to be for increased business investment to create jobs and opportunities. This will require increased demand from businesses and consumers here in the UK as well as from international markets. The question is - how confident do we feel as businesses and consumers to part with our money?"
