I’m a few months away from completing my TV and Film production degree as part of Bournemouth University and for one of my last assignments I have to write a dissertation. The title of my dissertation is ‘Did the recent recession in the United Kingdom affect income and budgets in TV, Film and Video productions?’

If you are in the media industry and have an opinion about the recession and how it’s affected you or others then I would like to know about it? Whilst writing your comments it would benefit me if you could point me to websites that could back your statements up for evidence in my dissertation

Thank you for your time,

Bruce

The UK economy will remain stuck in the doldrums this year with growth of 1% or less predicted in 2010, a leading forecaster has warned. The Ernst & Young ITEM Club, which uses the Treasury's economic model for its forecasts, said the immediate prospects for the UK were "dismal".

An export-led recovery was unlikely to emerge until 2011 and consumer spending was too weak for a recovery, it said It comes in a key week for economic news as the election battle gains pace.

Public finance figures on Thursday will confirm how much the government borrowed in the financial year that has just ended. And on Friday first quarter figures for overall economic output will be published.

'Eagerly watched'
ITEM said consumer spending was suffering as UK households laboured under high debts, subdued wage growth and lingering risks of unemployment. But despite the warning, ITEM's chief economic adviser, Peter Spencer, said there were "good reasons to be optimistic" about overseas demand - such as the weak pound - although global trade was unlikely to regain its 2008 peak until the end of 2011. He said: "The lack of domestic growth opportunities will force exporters and other organisations to seek overseas income streams, particularly in Asia, while the weak pound makes UK output extremely competitive. "The longer this situation continues, the more obvious it will become that this is the way forward, both for businesses and the macro-economy."

BBC chief economics correspondent Hugh Pym said the economic figures released this week would "add impetus" to the election campaign debate about the state of the economy. "The latest inflation and unemployment data will be watched eagerly by politicians and economists to see whether the recent downward trend is sustained in both cases," he said. The key question would be whether the economy grew at the same pace as in the fourth quarter of last year, when it emerged from recession, he said.

The UK economy emerged from recession after six consecutive quarters of contraction. Official figures show the economy grew by 0.4% in the last three months of 2009, up from the original estimate of 0.1%.

From the bbc

The uk is drowning in debt, 1.5 trillion pounds of personal debt is the collective figure for the uk population.

The personal debt figure rounded up is equal to @ £55,000 for every uk household.

Mortgages, personal loans and credit cards are a major factor in the total debt mountain.

The figures were issued as debt experts warned that a record 150,000 people could be plunged into insolvency this year 15 per cent more than last year.

The number of people filing bankruptcy has also risen. To pay off debt without declaring bankruptcy, more and more borrowers are seeking debt help from the debt relief companies. The mountain of debt has also led to an increased number of companies offering free debt advice online and over the phone. Different charities are also offering free counseling to debtors so that they can come out of the financial crisis.

Bank of England policymaker, Kate Barker, said the UK is unlikely to return to recession.

In an interview over the weekend, Ms Barker, who is a former housing adviser to the Government, said it is possible, however, that the economy could contract for one quarter.

“It’s possible we will have a quarter when GDP falls, but I don’t think it will be a double dip. I would be surprised if we go back to recession but I think recovery will be bumpy and fragile,” she said.

The UK economy emerged from recession in the fourth quarter of 2009 by experiencing growth of just 0.3%.

All economists and reports have suggested that the recovery will be fragile, while some have expressed concern for a double-dip recession (whereby the economy goes into recession twice without having undergone a full recovery in between).

However, Ms Barker told Saturday’s Western Morning News the big freeze earlier this year hit retail sales but February’s business surveys had painted a more positive picture of the economy.

Finance markets

The pound has fallen to a nine-month low against the dollar with fears over the strength of the UK economy largely blamed for the slide.

Sterling fell 1.4 cents to $1.5261, the weakest since May 2009, and also dropped back against the euro. Analysts said investors were increasingly concerned that the UK would struggle to tackle its deficit. There are also worries that GDP growth of 0.1% seen in the final three months of 2009 may be revised downwards.

The next revision of GDP will be released on Friday and if it proves to have been a negative figure, that would show the UK had failed to emerge from the uk recession.

Last week, figures showed that UK inflation had accelerated to 3.5% and that public finances had deteriorated further after the government borrowed another £4.3bn in January to plug the growing hole in the UK's finances.

"The moves in sterling have gone further than most other currencies because of the poor UK data, raising concerns that weaknesses in the economy remain," said Lauren Rosborough, currency strategist at Westpac.

The UK's deficit was 11.8% of GDP last year and is forecast to climb further in 2010 to levels similar to that of beleaguered Greece.

Bank of England governor Mervyn King this week told MPs that he believed there was no danger of a downgrade on the UK currency's AAA status.

However Rabobank International currency strategist Jeremy Sketch said that many investors were not convinced about the security of its rating.

"Sterling is being seen in the risk bucket and risk is off the agenda right now," Mr Sketch told Bloomberg.

Some observers have also suggested that the political uncertainty facing the UK is also contributing to sterling's weakness.

Opinion polls suggest that the lead of the Conservative Party over the governing Labour Parliament is narrowing.

This increases the prospect of a hung parliament - seen as troublesome for struggling economies as it makes it harder for whoever is in power to quickly act to begin tackling economic problems.

From the bbc

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced losses for 2009 of £3.6bn ($5.5bn), after struggling with billions of pounds of bad loans.

Despite the losses, the bank is set to announce it will pay bonuses of £1.3bn to its staff.

The bank's chief executive, Stephen Hester, however, has said he will not take his own bonus.

The UK taxpayer owns 84% of RBS after the government bailed out the bank at the end of 2008.

Mr Hester told BBC Radio 4's Today programme RBS had lost out by not paying bigger bonuses. "We've had a small experiment in this respect... some of our best-performing people have been leaving in their thousands," he said. "The people who left us last year, I believe, would have increased our profits by up to a billion pounds beyond the ones that we've got."

One other controversial topic for the banks has been its role in lending to business and home buyers.
Mr Hester again defended the bank's approach. He said he was satisfied that RBS was fulfilling both the letter and the spirit of its lending commitments, saying it had beaten its target for mortgage lending.

He said the bank had not, however, reached its target for small business lending, partly because businesses, he said, were focused on paying off debt.

The loss figure is lower than the £5bn many experts were expecting and is well below the £24bn it lost in 2008.

Bad debts rose sharply to just short of £13.9bn from £7.4bn in 2008, but the bank says it thinks these have now peaked.

Mr Hester said he expected the bank to return to profit next year.

RBS is the second major UK bank to report 2009 results, after Barclays announced record profits of £11.6bn.

Lloyds Bank will report its results this Friday.

From the bbc

The 26th january 2010 was the date that the uk recession was officially declared over.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have release the latest gross domestic product (GDP) figures for the final three months of 2009.
These figures show that the uk economy grew by 0.1%. Not a big figure but enough to bring us out of recession.

Recently, when Treasury minister Lord Myners was asked if recovery can be maintained at a time of huge cuts in public spending, he said: "We have a strategy for growth going forward, as growth will play an important part in reducing the deficit. "At the same time, we acknowledge that decisions will have to be made about public expenditure."

UK companies should brace themselves for "a bumpy recovery", despite a fall in the number of profit warnings in the final quarter of 2009, a report says.

Accountancy company Ernst and Young says only 50 companies issued profit warnings in the fourth quarter, the lowest level in six years. The firm said the economy had picked up quicker than expected but "2010 is when we start paying [for the recovery]".

Figures due out Tuesday are expected to show Britain has exited recession. Experts predict the data will show the UK economy grew at about 0.4% in the three months to December 2009

In January of last year the UK entered recession for the first time since 1991, after experiencing two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. It is one of the last major economies still in recession, with the French and German economies exiting recession last summer.

Fragile growth

Keith McGregor, restructuring partner at Ernst and Young said: "Growth in the first part of the year could sit in contrast with economic stagnation or even a second dip later on." "The events in Dubai at the end of 2009 amply demonstrate how quickly situations can still deteriorate. The coming years could contain more of these shocks" he added.

.The report also pointed out that in 2010 budget constraints will mean the government pulls back from pumping extra money into the economy.

The Bank of England's 'quantative easing' scheme, in which assets are bought up to increase the amount of money flowing in the economy, is also due to come to an end.

Overall in 2009, most of the profit warnings came from fixed line telecom firms, the oil industry and banks.

From the bbc

A report has been made public showing how different uk cities are coping with the uk recession. The report also outlines the future for different uk cities on recovery. cities report

Today we thought it would be an idea to show just some of the interest the uk recession has in universities. In the uk and abroad students are looking up various information on and about the uk recession. The entries below are just some of the visits to uk recession.com on the 18th january 2010. There are many more universities and colleges logged for this day but we will show just a few.

University of Brighton

Hi brighton uni, we hope you found what you were looking for.

Edinburgh university

A direct visit from the edinburgh university

Liverpool university

Another direct visit from liverpool uni.

De Montfort university

Searched for "recession depression"

Madrid university

Searched for "recession in uk"

Nottingham trent university

Searched for "government action in 1990"

Plymouth university

Was looking for information on "uk car industry"

Manchester university

Wanted "uk recession history.

Many many more educational establishments are looking for uk recession information, it is an ever growing daily trend.