No 204: Key issues and stats for macroeconomics

THE table below summarises the important economic indicators and the most important current issues about them.

	Now	B4	Current Issue(s)
Economic Growth	0.5% (Q1 2011)	-0.5% (Q4 2010)	2011 total growth forecast to be 1.4% - is this sign of a recovery?
Inflation	4.5% (CPI April)	4.0% (CPI March)	Should interest rates be raised to control inflation, or will this endanger recovery?
Unemployment	7.7% (Q1 2011)	7.8% (Q4 2010)	Will government job cuts be replaced by private sector jobs? 20% of 16-25 year olds are unemployed.
Current Account	-2.9%   (of GDP Q4 2010)	-2.4%   (of GDP Q3 2010)	Can exports (low exchange rate / manufacturing) help lead the recovery?

No 203: Some very useful last minute resources

HERE are two very useful resources for you to look at before the Module 2 exam tomorrow, both from tutor2u.

This links to a post which talks about how important it is to provide some context in your answer. That is, to connect your general economic analysis with some current events in the UK economy.

Advice on use of context     

As you should all know, the basic economic background in the UK at the moment is that we are just about starting a recovery after a very deep recession, although it is uncertain how quickly the situation will improve.

The next link below is about tutor2u's prediction for the exam. They think that inflation may feature in the exam tomorrow, since it has not in recent exams and the rate of inflation is very high at the moment.

What you should revise about inflation

Good luck tomorrow and remember......

No 202: Revision notes on unemployment

THIS links to a post on Tutor2u which briefly summarises all the main information on unemployment for both the AS and A2 exams:



tutor2u unemployment notes

Hope you enjoy! Hope you're enjoying revision and exams......

If you need some relief, watch this video:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/diet-coke-and-mentos-stunt-goes-wrong.html

No 201: Slight fall in unemployment (of one type)

UK unemployment (labour force survey measure) has fallen by 36,000 to 2,46 million.

 
  This is over the 1st quarter of 2011. The percentage rate of unemployment is now 7.7%, down from the previous figure of 7.8%.

However, the rate of unemployment among 16-24 year olds is still very high - 20%.

Also, there was a rise in the Claimant count by 12,400 in April up to 1.47 million. This is explained by a movement of people from economically inactive categories such as those on sickness benefit and income support, on to unemployment benefit.

No 200!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh dear, inflation

CPI inflation rose to 4.5% in April, compared to 4% in March. This was a surprisingly big increase.

(Note: this means prices were 4.5% higher in April 2011 compared to April 2010.)

The rise is blamed on increasing transport costs and rising prices for alcohol and tobacco. In his letter of explanation for the continued failure of inflation to meet the Bank of England target, Mervyn King said it was also due to the "increase in VAT to 20% in January, higher energy prices and increases in import prices".

On the other hand, RPI inflation fell a little from 5.3% to 5.2%, indicating some weakness in the housing market.

Read more about it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13421614

No 199: Useful revision presentations from Tutor2u

HERE are links to the Tutor2u revision presentations.

First, this link will take you to AS Micro (Module 1):

http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/index.php/economics/comments/as-micro-revision-resources-collated/

Second, this link will take you to AS Macro (Module 2):

http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/index.php/economics/comments/as-macro-revision-resources-collated/

No 198: Are you the 10,00th?

WE are very near to having the 10,000th visitor.

If you are the 10,000th, contact me or or the blog with some evidence of this - like a screenshot - and I'll organise some kind of prize!