After a difficult year for businesses, 2023 doesn't look like it will provide much respite. Economists are predicting one of the longest recessions on record in the UK as the cost-of-living crisis, war in Ukraine, high energy prices and ongoing supply chain issues impact consumer and business spending.
These latest economic difficulties come just three years after the Covid recession of 2020 and poor growth in the UK since the 2008 credit crunch. But as Julio Bruno, chairman of Mercato Metropolitano and board director at Pacha Group, points out: “Recessions are logical." So businesses must learn how to navigate them.
“A lot of people think 'recession' is a bad word but the economy goes up and down and we should demystify what a recession is – nothing other than a correction or a dip,” he says.