UK Growth

The onset of the current crisis has exposed fragilities in the global economy caused by a long obsession with efficiency, to the exclusion of all else.

Following the financial crash of 2008, investors have benefited from a decade of bullish markets, and while there were indications that a slowdown was on the horizon, economic stasis caused by a flu pandemic was not on anyone's radar.

A steep contraction in the UK economy is all but inevitable. Indeed, the latest survey data points to a sharp drop in activity since the start of the Covid-19 crisis.

With the UK facing the prospect of the sharpest drop in economic activity for more than 300 years, now seems a challenging time to be searching for growth.

Covid-19 and the measures taken to contain it have caused an extraordinary level of operating losses, debt accumulation and dividend cancellation across the UK equity market.

Amid the increasingly sobering economic projections and single issue news coverage, it is easy to become blinkered.

While a global crisis in which large swathes of the world's population have been locked down will, inevitably, leave some companies floundering, others are likely to emerge stronger than before.

At the time of writing, UK equity benchmarks have fallen by approximately one-third from their year-to-date highs.

At the time of writing, UK equity benchmarks have fallen by approximately one-third from their year-to-date highs.