Economic News
CBI Update: Economic activity slows in three months to June. Growth in the UK’s private sector slowed in the three months to June, according to the latest CBI Growth Indicator.
The survey of 762 respondents across the distribution, manufacturing and service sectors showed the balance of firms reporting a rise in output at +6%, compared with +13% in the three months to May 2017.
A fall in business volumes in consumer services, unchanged volumes in business and professional services and slower growth in distribution and manufacturing all contributed to the weakening in momentum.
Private sector firms expect growth to pick up over the next three months (+14%).
Rain Newton-Smith, CBI Chief Economist, said:
“Growth has slowed across our surveys for a second successive month and expectations for the quarter ahead have cooled. “With the economy shifting down a gear, and higher inflation eating into household incomes, it’s vital the Government creates the right environment for businesses to continue contributing to the country’s prosperity.
“We need to fix the fundamentals of our economy by focusing on productivity enhancing measures such as improving educational attainment, infrastructure and innovation while supporting firms exporting overseas.”
Other News
Packed Lunches: According to the Grocer packed lunches have seen a resurgence driven by a huge increase among adults. Over 16’s consumed nearly 100 million extra packed lunches over the last two years. Adults now account for 81.3% of the total. Sandwiches are still the favorite in lunch boxes appearing in 1,177.6M occasions with morning goods appearing in 458.4M occasions.
This week is National Childhood Obesity Week. Further details are available here http://www.mendcentral.org/ncow
Groceries Code Ajudicator: Edition 12 of the GCA newsletter – ‘News from the Adjudicator’ is now available online. Please click the link to follow.
Fraud and Adulteration Survey: The university of Birmingham with colleagues at University of Central Lancaster and University of Portsmouth, has been discussing the preparedness of the food industry with regard to fraud and adulteration. Obviously there has been considerable interest and development in the last few years. They are trying to get a feel for how the industry has responded to try and protect themselves from fraud and have developed a short survey which we would like to ask as many volunteers as possible to complete. The survey may be found at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/anti-foodfraudtools and should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. Please do complete the survey if you can and we will get a copy of the results.
The purpose of this research is to establish a database on the different types of anti-fraud tools that are currently being used within the UK food industry and to understand their effectiveness in preventing food fraud. The output from this study may help to shape future approaches to food fraud vulnerability assessments and highlight areas of opportunity for improved tools and training.
As it states in the survey introduction, the information is for research purposes only and responses will be anonymous and treated in confidence. The survey is scheduled to close at the end of August.