1. Come gather, Dear Readers For the last time this year And enjoy what in our world Represents Christmas cheer We’ll tell of the economy In twenty-sixteen And we’ll start looking forward To what next year might bring.
2. Here in Dear Old Blighty Our economy grew Something it has now done for Seven years in a row Employment expanded And real wages rose While inflation remained At historical lows.
3. An Englishman’s home is His castle, they say But for too many people It’s no longer that way Supply’s insufficient To meet rising demand Can the housing White Paper Draw a line in the sand?
4. Most measures of profit Are historically high More through costs that have fallen Than seeing top lines rise With input costs mounting From a much weaker pound Repeating that trick will Be hard next time ’round.
5. Price pressures are growing Inflation will rise But there seems little prospect Of rates doing likewise In setting the balance ’Twixt inflation and growth The MPC’s clear that It wants more of both.
6. In springtime in Britain There were many who feared That the June referendum Would make this a bad year The Treasury warned us Of a shock so profound But the sole big effect’s Been a fall in the pound.
7. Outside of these islands Big news overseas Was Americans choosing Their Commander in Chief More spending, less taxes Will both prime the pump But can free trade survive A protectionist Trump?
8. Now one of the lessons Of America’s polls Is that trade has eroded Some community’s souls While trade makes countries richer It leaves some folk worse off And a challenge we face is To shift that trade-off.
9. So growth should continue Thro’ the course of next year With inflation more frisky At least that much seems clear Then Article 50 We will come to invoke Will it unleash potential Or act as a choke?
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