HSBC’s senior UK economist Liz Martins shared her insights on the current economic climate with Cumbrian business leaders at an event in Carlisle earlier this month.

Despite the uncertain global environment marked by elections around the world and geopolitical risks, Liz Martins said she remains optimistic about the UK economy.

“The UK economy is starting to pick up. We’ve had some very good GDP growth numbers this morning and we have a new government which seems to be going down well with the financial markets, so it’s quite an optimistic message at the moment. There will always be challenges, but things are looking up,” she said.

Highlighting a few key challenges, the economist added, “Inflation is still too high for the Bank of England’s liking, so as much as businesses will be looking forward to interest rates coming down, we need to see inflation come down first.”

She also pointed out the challenges the new government faces with public finance, as the national debt is nearly 100 per cent of GDP.

“They’ve got to decide how they can deliver their programme with very limited resources. There are challenges ahead of course, and it’s certainly not a perfect economic backdrop, but at least the economy is growing again,” she added.

The event was organised and hosted by Armstrong Watson at their Carlisle headquarters.