UK business investment revised up in Q4.. |
Yet more good news this month then for the UK (and Chancellor Hunt) as the ONS has just revised up business investment data for the final quarter last year. Business investment is defined as; private businesses acquiring long-lasting assets to produce goods or services. The more invested, the greater the output produced by the humans operating the asset (machinery mainly). In Q3, business investment was still 8.1% below pre-pandemic levels. An increase of 4.8% to end the year, more or less puts it back to pre-pandemic levels. The recovery is good news and causes a bit of a headache for Chancellor Hunt at the budget next month on what to do with corporation tax. Whilst the UK is the 5th largest investor in the robot/automation market, it's 24th by robot density per employee. The lowest of the G7 and much lower compared to other industrialised countries. It effectively means that businesses are missing out on the benefits of new technology available to them to increase productivity, this in-turn hurts UK GDP. |