Centre for Retail Research: "How Did We Get Here?"

Link to CRR: 'Retail Forecast for 2012-2013'

How Did We Get Here?

In the ten years to 2006, the UK economy was growing exceptionally quickly (3.2% pa) by historical standards. People felt better off, but they were not necessarily actually better off

... This mechanism to increase people's living standards went into reverse when the credit crunch started: property and stockmarket prices fell, pension funds were worth less, households consumers cut spending and tried to pay off their debts, bankruptcies hit large and small companies creating further bankruptcies, it was more difficult to find work and even well-established companies started laying employees off.

'The Centre for Retail Research provides authoritative
and expert research and analysis of the retail and 
service sectors in Britain, Europe and globally.'

Where Are We Now?

We are worse off. Although it is four years since the worst of the 2008 recession, the UK economy has not yet regained the position that it had before the recession, and it may still be 1.8%-2.8% below 2008. Compared to the trend of the previous five years, the economy now is 12.5% smaller that it 'should have been' which explains why so many things are going wrong in public finances and consumer spending.

"This means that we have lost perhaps one-eighth of potential national output because of the crisis."