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There is a tug of war going on right now in the economy. The struggle is between families and businesses looking to cut their costs, maximise efficiency and get the most out of their money and the steeply rising cost of goods, services and living. Unfortunately the winner at the moment seems to be the costs of goods, services and living.


We’ve seen today that inflation has risen to 3.7%. But the problem is that most people’s wages have risen by less than 1% or had their wages frozen altogether. Then add in the factors of rising fuel prices, higher food and clothing costs and the situation starts to look a little but bleak.


This does mean that this struggle is going to have some form of effect on the economy. Consumers are going to be spending less to cover for the increases in living. Growth will slow and trading conditions will become tougher once again. For big ticket items like double glazing, installers really are going to have to hit the consumers hard with the benefits and features of their products to keep interest going. My thought is that we are going to have to put our recession heads back on and prepare to rise out some tough times.