Friday, September 14, 2018

Welsh Stagnation

A decade ago this week, the US investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed, sending shockwaves through the global financial system. The impact of the banking crisis is still being felt every day in Wales - ten years on.
Ian Price, director of business association CBI Wales, said Wales was not hit in the same way as London when the crisis struck, but has had a hard time returning to the growth it experienced before September 2008. Wales did not see the many thousands of well-heeled bankers having to clear their desks and find new work but it did see a number of prominent businesses go to the wall.
"It obviously had an impact but because we haven't got a large financial sector it probably didn't have the impact in Wales as it did in London or the south east," he said.
Living standards in Wales are struggling to return to 2008 levels, 10 years on from the financial crisis.
The typical household income has grown by just 1.1% since 2008-09, the smallest rise in UK wages outside London and the south-east.
House prices have also been slow to recover, growing by 21% - the second lowest increase in the country, far below the UK average of 32% increase and less than half the total in London, where prices have increased by 50%.

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