There was some good news tucked away in the latest GDP report, says economist Andrew Sentance, a former member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, on Twitter. Fixed capital expenditure business spending on fixed assets such as factories, machinery and buildings has returned to 17% of GDP, the highest figure since the crisis. Investment in assets that help boost output should pave the way for increases in productivity and hence growth. Output per hour already seems to be recovering nicely, as David Smith notes in The Sunday Times. In mid-2017, it had been flat for a decade and has lagged the US and French figures. But in the second half of last year, it jumped by an annualised 3.5%.
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