Britain has gone through the worst of the recession and should return to growth in the fourth quarter, although there is “still a lot of work to do,” two Bank of England (BoE) policymakers said in newspaper interviews published yesterday.
Deputy Bank Governor Charles Bean said the economy was “bumping along the bottom” after a disappointing performance in the third quarter.
“However, it would not surprise me if we see an expansion in the economy in the final quarter of this year, and further strengthening in growth after that,” he was quoted as saying in the Newcastle Journal, a regional newspaper.
“The recovery will be slow and protracted,” he said.
In a separate interview, policymaker Adam Posen said the bank believed the economy has “bottomed out.”
“There is still a lot of work to do and the country still has a lot of spare capacity but we are starting to see decent growth,” Posen was quoted as saying on the Lincolnshire Echo’s Web site.
“We think there is greater confidence than there was 12 months ago and interest rates have come down,” he said.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling will downgrade this year’s economic outlook when he presents his pre-budget report next month, a UK finance ministry source said on Thursday.
Darling will lower his forecast for UK economic output this year, saying the financial crisis has inflicted far deeper pain than he predicted in April, a government official said.
The chancellor’s pre-budget report — due on Dec. 9 — will show GDP falling 4.75 percent this year, compared with the 3.5 percent drop forecast seven months ago, the official said.
“The downturn at the beginning of the year was far more severe than people were expecting,” Darling said during a debate in parliament on Thursday on the economy.
“The majority of external forecasters are revising their predictions for this year and next; that’s not surprising,” he said.
Darling stood by his forecast that Britain will resume growth by year-end as unprecedented levels of monetary and fiscal stimulus begin to work.
The official said British economy may expand between 0.2 percent and 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter.
The BoE forecasts Britain will exit the recession in the fourth quarter. The economy will expand 2.2 percent next year and 4.1 percent in 2011, policymakers said in projections published on Nov. 11.
The economy shrank 0.3 percent between July and September, extending the recession to six quarters, the longest on record.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite