Showing posts with label oecd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oecd. Show all posts

Thursday, May 30, 2013

House Prices Overvalued?

According to the OECD, house prices in the UK are too high.

The Telegraph reports that a study by the OECD, which compared prices with local wages and rents, suggests that British house prices are 31% too high compared to rents and 21% over-priced against incomes.

Given that housing is the bedrock of the British economy, providing a credit hungry public with the raison d'etre to borrow ever increasingly large sums of money, people would be forgiven for thinking that this analysis is grim news for the economy.

Fear not!

The British government cannot help itself when it comes to meddling in the housing market and, via its Help To Buy Scheme announced in the March Budget, has already taken actions to underpin and further stimulate the housing market.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

UK In Double Dip Recession

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has reported that the UK economy shrank in the first three months of the year.

Between January and March economic output fell, compared to the previous quarter, at an annual rate of -0.4%.

Given that there were three months of negative growth at the end of 2011, this means that the UK is now yet again officially in recession (ie a double dipper).