Comment: Britain's export-led revival
Amid all the turmoil in the periphery of the euroland, it is comforting that the British economy continues to outperform expectations.
Growth in the third quarter was a robust 0.8% (or more than 3% in annualised terms), which is above trend. The most encouraging aspect of this is that the engine of expansion is net exports.
Finally, as the Bank of England's Andrew Sentance noted in a speech to the CBI in Belfast, there are signs that a business led recovery can sustain British growth as the deficit is brought down.
The manufacturing sector is growing faster than the services sector, indicating that a re-balancing is taking place.
The big number in the third quarter was the rise in export volumes which climbed by 2.2%. And after two quarters of declines of UK services overseas there was a strong bounce in the third quarter.
This suggests Britain has entered the final three months with a fair wind behind it. If that is the case then output for the year will be a great deal higher than George Osborne's Budget forecasts, which should assist an improvement in the public finances too.
While our exports to Ireland may be affected by the crisis at our nearest neighbours, two of our biggest trading partners, Germany and the US, are doing very nicely too.
In Germany, business confidence has climbed to the highest level in two decades and in the US, on the eve of the Thanksgiving break, durable goods orders, personal spending and corporate profits are coming through strongly.
There are softer spots in Britain, notably the slowdown in private domestic demand. This seems to have partly been driven by a sharp fall in car sales, which may have more to do with the phasing of new number plates than anything else.
But most of the numbers coming from our retailers, including John Lewis, which supplies us with a weekly update, look reasonably healthy. There should be good flows of income to the UK from those shopping groups making an impression overseas, including Tesco, Burberry and Topshop.
Many people think the real test will come when VAT jumps in January from 17.5% to 20%. It will, of course, make a difference.
But with interest rates still low - as Lord Young correctly observed - many homeowners are in receipt of an unseen boost to their disposable income. So we shouldn't be too downhearted.
Power play
It's the banking system, stupid. That is what should really be posted outside the office of Ireland's beleaguered prime minister Brian Cowen.
His government's austere four year plan to shave £13bn or so from the Irish budget is a step that is necessary to persuade the hard men from the International Monetary Fund, the ECB and the EU to release the large bailout fund.
But unless the fundamental problems of the banking system are addressed it will be a case of good money after bad.
The combined liabilities of the banking system are estimated at £446bn, or around four times the nation's total economic output. Most usefully the bailout funds could be used to reorganise the banks.
So what needs doing? The two weakest links in the system, Anglo Irish and Irish Nationwide, already have passed into state hands and effectively are in run-off.
The equity has been written down but there are questions as to whether bond holders have been sufficiently punished.
Next in line for nationalisation is the grand dame of Dublin's financial sector, Bank of Ireland. It and Allied Irish Banks, while troubled, almost certainly need saving in some way. Finding foreign buyers is one possibility - where is the buyer of the last resort, Santander, when you need it - and shedding UK assets is another.
But the buyers would almost certainly want the nasty bits removed in much the same way as the British government took on the liabilities of Bradford & Bingley and Dunfermline and Northern Rock among others.
Confidence is the key if sustainable levels of retail and wholesale deposits are to be restored. That is going to be the real challenge for the international enforcers. Until that happens, Ireland's largest financial company, with a market value of £1.3bn, will be none other than gamblers' friend Paddy Power.
Indian summer
Want to become part of the Asian miracle? Investors need look no further than London's AIM market. The London Stock Exchange points out that in the last ten weeks five Indian companies, including the latest Jubilant Energy, have come to the market raising £220m.
It would be nice to think that they have also taken the City's commitment to transparency and good governance to heart. But there are no guarantees of that.
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