When GDP fell by a measly 0.5% in the last quarter of 2010, all the journos and economists started bleating about what a disaster this was. Wrong! Totally wrong! If I remember correctly about a third of GDP is made up of consumption – the things we buy. Given that 40% of our food and at least 80% of the crap (TVs, mobile phones, cars etc) is made abroad, the more we buy, the more jobs we create in other countries, especially currency-manipulating China.
What we really want is for manufacturing, building and services to go up, but for consumption to fall so people save money and pay down their debts. This means that as long as productive activity in Britain increases, it’s good for overall GDP to fall. But I guess they didn’t teach Economics for Beginners at Eaton.