John Ashcroft is Founder, CEO and Author of The Saturday Economist. In a Q&A ahead of his keynote in The AHC Reimagined, he shares his thoughts on economic recovery, governmental policy and the travel and real estate markets in the UK.
In this final extract, John shares his views on the potential economic outlook in the UK. The full interview is available here.
The economic impact
The shock to output in the economy has never been so severe. The drop of over 20% in Q2 is unprecedented.
The decision to lock down the economy may well have been correct. We always warned, imposing medieval measures of containment to a contemporary economy, would risk driving us all back to the dark ages.
A swift recovery?
The recovery in the economy could be much swifter than is currently anticipated. Both monetary and fiscal policy are set to accommodate a rapid recovery. The government will spend some £300 billion in the current financial year to facilitate the process. As businesses are allowed to return to work, output growth will accelerate. The reversion to the mean, the return to normality will follow.
What of the hotel sector?
Some sectors will be slower to recover than others. Travel and tourism, hotels and leisure may well be at the back of the queue. More government help is needed financially via the furlough scheme and logistically with a clear, transparent, logical, strategy for the sector.
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John Ashcroft will give a keynote presentation on 'Cycle, Interrupted: The Economic Outlook’ at The AHC Reimagined on Thursday 8th October. To hear more from John and other expert speakers about the opportunities in the UK hotel market, register here.