The investment management team at Legal and General are anticipating recession in the UK as early as this year.
The economic indicators the Legal and General people are looking at are highlighting an imminent recession. These indicators include the level of borrowing, reduced spending and the relative inability to access extra funds. In combination these factors are really making the British public take notice of the economy and consider their own positions.
Further driving the problem is the fact that the global economy is struggling, so it is not an isolated UK issue. Consumers in the UK are keeping a wary eye on the situation says Legal and General, which automatically means they are less free with their spending and tend to be much more conservative in their decisions.
A new study carried out by Saga Insurance has found that those over 50 years of age do not like to discuss money unless they really have to, unlike younger people who are much more at ease with it.
However there are some things that no-one is particularly comfortable discussing, no matter what their age. The Saga Insurance study revealed that discussions regarding earnings and salary figures are disliked by all categories, with respondents saying they would try and get out of such a discussion if they could.
On the subject of discussing finances generally, around half of those involved in the study told Saga Insurance that it was not an appropriate subject to discuss, whilst almost ten percent of people said they would be embarrassed to discuss their personal finance situation with anyone.
Representatives from Virgin Money have been discussing the potential purchase of troubled Northern Rock, they being part of a larger consortium.
The plan, if accepted, will be to make an initial GBP 11 billion payment, via commercial debt providers, and then put in a further GBP 1.3 billion for fresh capital investment. At the moment Northern Rock appear to accept the proposal put before them although there are questions over the longer term risk that taxpayers would face on the outstanding debt position.
The government will no doubt acknowledge this risk but it will be mitigated in some way by the interest rate they will earn on it, bringing extra revenue in to cover the risk, to a certain extent anyway. Right now Virgin Money look like firm favourites to take the Northern rock situation on, though only time will tell if that is the case.
