The UK will be "heavily dependent" on the property market this year, with one million house transactions set to offset continued eurozone woes. The Ernst & Young Item Club's spring forecast warns that the UK will have to wait until 2015 before exports start contributing positively to growth.
It expects GDP to expand by just 0.6% this year and that, with the rebalancing of the economy on hold, the UK will again have to rely on the consumer. This year's forecast 7.5% rise in housing transactions comes as mortgage costs start to fall due to the Government and Bank of England's Funding for Lending scheme. And in last month's budget, Chancellor George Osborne announced plans to underwrite £130 billion of mortgages from next year...............................................Full Article: Source
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