Economic commentary

Topics discussed in this commentary include:

• rapid recovery in the United States;
• rising commodity prices, but little effect as yet on UK import costs and domestic prices;
• recovery of the UK economy-moderate growth in output but domestic demand, particularly consumers' expenditure, has been growing more rapidly;
• the course of public sector finances;
• the substantial growth of personal borrowing in the United Kingdom in recent years, much of it on mortgages, sustaining consumer spending in the absence of growth in real personal incomes;
• some improvement in company profitability, and the behaviour of corporate borrowing.

Economic commentary