Where does the UK economy stand heading into 2018? Economists James Knightley and James Smith at Dutch lender ING have compiled a handy "dashboard" showing the health of six key indicators in the economy. The indicators — inflation, consumer spending, hiring, wage growth, investment, and manufacturing — provide a reasonable snapshot of where things stand right now.
Perhaps the most interesting of ING's indicators is consumer spending. Consumers have been in recent years, the main drivers of Britain's economic growth, but Brexit has started to slow that story, and according to data released earlier this week, consumers are now more pessimistic about their personal finances than at any point in the last four years. "After a remarkable run in 2016, spending has slowed significantly as real wages fall. Shoppers remain cautious on non-essentials, which will keep a lid on growth as we head into the new year," Knightley and Smith write.
This week markets will be looking at:
Manufacturing PMI (Tuesday 10:30)
Construction PMI (Wednesday 10:30)
Services PMI (Thursday 10:30)
