Chapter I. the Home Economy
Keyword(s):
This chapter contains a brief general account of recent developments in the economy and a short-term forecast to end-1984. (A medium-term assessment is given in chapter 3.) Since our last forecast, published in the May issue, we have re-estimated, and in some cases also re-specified, many sectors of our econometric model. This has inevitably changed some of its properties.Two short notes are appended. The first discusses the company sector's current financial position and the implications of the forecast for profitability. The second describes the data on wage settlements which we compile as part of our regular assessment of trends in wages and earnings.