According to one corporate counsel, “there is an upturn in business confidence generally, but I could not comment on the timing and steepness of the ‘bounce back’ curve”. Stephen Bacon, legal adviser to Express Newspapers, expressed himself to be “an eternal optimist”. This optimistic view is borne out by Robin Bew, chief economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
In a recent presentation to corporate counsel, Bew’s headline was that recovery was underway, but there were still challenges ahead. The US Economy was starting to produce “stunning results” and, indeed, all the G3 economies were starting to accelerate. “US income-tax and family-tax credits were introduced in July but would run through to election year in 2004, spreading the good news through until early 2005,” said Bew.
