Conspiracy theorists who reckon governments juice up the economy so an economic revival coincides with a General Election may have to have a rethink.
Either that, or the Conservative government has timing issues.
A bit too late to provide a feel-good factor for the election, gross domestic product picked up in the second quarter by 0.7%, after rising 0.4% in the first quarter.
The growth was in line with expectations, but according to Graham Spooner of The Share Centre, it is significant because “Britain’s economic output per person, has finally reached its level achieved before the financial crisis.”
Put another way, you could say that output per person has reached the levels last seen under a Labour government.
Be that as it may, 10 consecutive quarters of growth is not to be sneezed at, but before you break open the bubbly, there may be a downside to all of this.
“This continued growth trend may start to focus investors’ attention towards the possibility of a rise in interest rates and it should also help to underpin the recent strength of sterling,” Spooner noted.
Despite the improvement of the economy to pre-crisis levels, a poll conducted by pay-TV broadcaster Sky revealed that 45% of those questioned said they felt worse off now than they were before the credit crunch, while only 26% believe things have improved.
Looking at just the last few months, a mere 17% say their standard of living has got better while just under a third – or 31% - say it has got worse.
Down at the Co-op, the supermarkets can stop playing “Things Can Only Get Better” as background music as shoppers shuffle through the aisles because the group’s supermarket sales have grown year-on-year for the first time since July 2014.
Figures from market research firm Kantar Worldpanel indicate the Co-op’s sales rose by 1% in June, but things were not so peachy at Asda, where sales dropped 2.7%, and saw the supermarket chain slip behind Sainsbury’s (LON:SBRY) in terms of market share.
We’re not ones to brag here at Proactive Investors (he bragged), but we did tell you last Wednesday that bidders were sniffing around insurer RSA Insurance (LON:RSA).
Zurich Insurance confirmed this morning that it is considering making an offer for the London-listed insurance firm, which has former RBS boss Stephen Hester as its chief executive (CEO).
Some media pundits have suggested Hester would be a good choice as the new CEO of Barclays (LON:BARC), and the former RBS and Abbey National head honcho certainly has a track record when it comes to knocking companies into shape.
In other mergers & acquisition (M&A) news, Hikma Pharmaceuticals (LON:HIK) is to buy US generic drug maker Roxane from Boehringer Ingelheim; GKN (LON:GKN) is to meet the Fokker asking price, and is paying just under half a billion quid to acquire Fokker Technologies from Arle Capital; and US heavyweight Honeywell is paying £3.3bn in cash for the Elster business of industrial holding company Melrose Industries (LON:MRS).
One assumes that if 17% of people really do believe things have got better in recent months, it is a good bet that M&A advisers are among that faction.