Fittingly, a forgettable year for the economy ended on a downbeat note, with the last set of official data for 2023 showing the UK uneasily perched on the brink of recession.
That should come as little real surprise. Higher interest rates from the Bank of England were meant to hurt – and they are. Borrowing costs were raised 14 times between December 2021 and August 2023 in successive jumps and there were fears back in the summer that they might go still higher.
