The Government’s economic policy is now also directed at putting a stop to the well-known British pattern of stop-go, boom-bust. Gordon Brown’s first budget had a moderating effect on the exuberant cyclical conditions. Right now, the first signs of a cyclical slowdown are showing up. Hopefully, they do not portend a bust for the British economy. But we will have to wait and see.
Like the business cycles of countries such as the Netherlands and Germany, that of Britain will never run exactly parallel to the European average. This is the consequence of conducting a single monetary policy in an area as large as the euro zone.