Friday 23 April 2010

The C@W Real Economy Index: Still Falling

The C@W annual Real Economy index is published today. Based on the change, year-on-year, in the amount of advertising (by page-area) in the Croydon edition of the Thomson Local directory, we first published this in 2009 when it recorded a decline of 29.9 %, see photo above: and again here using the Yellow Pages (23.5% down).

And for 2010 ? *drumroll* - yup, its down again, this time by a further 22.8% - photo below - for a cumulative 2-year drop of more than 45% over two years.

Recovery ? what recovery ?

ND

photos (c) N.Drew 2010

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like this as a barometer of the economy, but this form of advertising has been on the decline for the last ten years.

Maybe also look at online ad spend like google adwords, also shipping rates are a good measure.

Love the blog bytheway

Anon@9.30 said...

On my hansom cab index,
the output of the British economy has been at 0% for the last 105 years.
I think that fairly well condemns all parties - even the liberals.

Budgie said...

The Q1 2010 figure is 0.2% 'growth'. But annual inflation is around 4%. So presumably real growth after inflation is taken out is around -0.8%, ie a quarterly shrinkage of GDP?

Jim said...

Totally anecdotal, but the busy A road I live near, and cross frequently with slow moving agricultural vehicles, seems particularly empty these days. Rush hour is still busy, but inbetweentimes there is sometimes nothing coming in either direction. Thats unhead of for decades on that road.

I get the feeling the economy (the real economy where people do actual stuff, not sit in taxpayer financed offices, dreaming up new ways of stopping people doing things) is on its knees. These figures lend weight to that idea.

Nick Drew said...

it all speaks to me of an economic disaster postponed - what else did we expect ?

but one thing at a time ... Brown Out first !