UK GDP on the rise…

It is great news that we have managed to avoid a triple-dip recession and the economy has risen by 0.3% in the last quarter. Obviously we have far to go to regain economic prosperity but the figures released by the ONS yesterday show we are at least heading in the right direction. Significantly according to the ONS, the biggest contribution to this rise came from the service sector followed by that of the production industries.

Closer to home I was pleased to see that unemployment in the constituency has also gone down, with a decrease of JSA claimants by 41 to 1,458 for March 2013 in comparison to 1,499 for February 2013. This is extremely encouraging and I hope that both of these announcements are indicative of the positive results of the austerity measures which the Government has been pursuing in order to address the outstanding deficit.

So far, the deficit is down by a third, businesses have created over a million and a quarter new jobs, and interest rates are at record lows. Long may this good news continue…