Accounts software can help counter economic downturn

News Article - 06 June 2008
Category: Technology

The current economic downturn could worsen over the next year and last longer than expected, experts have forecast.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the UK economy is facing a bleak couple of years and businesses are advised to invest in accounts software in order to weather the storm.

Publishing its latest predictions for economic growth this week, the economics group stated that UK growth looks set to slow to 1.8 per cent and to 1.4 per cent during 2009.

The Paris-based OECD warns that Britain is facing a significant economic slump that could damage government spending plans, fuelled by sluggish property markets, rising food and fuel prices and the global credit crunch.

Jorgen Elmeskov, OECD acting chief economist, told the BBC: "Our forecast is more negative than the one we produced six months ago. Some of the factors we were worried about, such as financial market turmoil, have actually come about so we expect growth to be weak throughout the whole of 2008."

Mr Elmeskov added that the UK is likely to experience a gradual recovery from the economic downturn from the most severe economic slump since the 1990s recession and blamed "loose fiscal policy" for the current problems.

The Bank of England announced this week that its monetary policy committee had voted at its June meeting to keep interest rates on hold at five per cent for another month, in line with analysts' expectations.

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