UK economy predicted to be weak till 2024 despite Truss growth agenda

theguardian.com:

Britain’s economy is expected to take until 2024 to recover to pre-Covid levels amid a slowdown for hiring and business investment, as households and businesses struggle with soaring costs.

Business leaders have said that there has been a significant decline of key economic indicators in recent weeks, with confidence among company bosses over the growth outlook collapsing to the lowest level since the depths of the Covid crisis.

In a downbeat assessment, analysts at Deutsche Bank said UK GDP was due to take until 2024 to return to the level of December 2019 before the pandemic struck, raising the prospect of limited economic progress being made by the time of the next election.

Liz Truss used her speech to the Conservative party conference in Birmingham to argue her government would prioritise “growth, growth, growth” while attacking what she called an “anti-growth coalition” that could hold the country back.

The prime minister said she wanted to break a “high-tax, low-growth cycle” by offering lower taxes and scrapping regulations to encourage households to spend and companies to invest in the UK economy.

However, the promise to reboot growth comes at a difficult moment, with official figures showing the economy remained 0.2% smaller than pre-Covid levels at the end of June. With soaring energy prices and weaker global growth since Russia’s war in Ukraine began, the Bank of England has said the economy is close to recession and on course for limited progress next year.

Highlighting the risks to the economy with inflation at a 40-year high, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said more than three-quarters of companies in a survey of 5,200 firms had not increased investment in the last three months.

It said there had been a