Business leaders relieved by strong economic start to the year

Commenting on ONS data that shows monthly GDP rising by 0.8% in January 2022, Kitty Ussher, Chief Economist at the Institute of Directors, said:

“Business leaders concerned about how the Ukraine crisis may impact them will be relieved to hear that the economy had a strong start to the year, shrugging off its Omicron concerns and getting back to business in January even before the Plan B restrictions were fully relaxed.

“We would expect this trend to continue into February. Looking forwards the key economic question is whether those consumers that still have discretionary spending power are more pleased about the retreat of the virus than they are concerned about the financial impact of the grim news from Ukraine.”