How Kate and Will’s Wedding Impacted GB’s Economy
The question being asked by economists following the fanfare of the recent Royal Wedding, is, was it a good thing for the country’s finances? And, how will it impact Great Britain’s economy in the future. So let’s look at analytics and first the possible negative implications. The country was given another day off due to the regal nuptials and according to some economists – combined with all the other bank holidays – this has been resulting in an “unusual amount of disruption to local businesses – especially smaller enterprises.” Indeed, if you take all the bank holidays for this year, the UK economy is a further £2.9b out of pocket. This might not be so bad if the country were to return to its regular amount of bank holidays next year but given that the Queen is set to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee, there will still be the additional day off.
<h3>Bank Holidays: Bad for Business</h3>
While everyone of course loves the idea of a day off – which is exactly what a Bank Holiday provides – it isn’t always so good for business. It is probably good for morale (which some might say is indirectly therefore good for business), but still has other problematic implications. Nonetheless, if you look at other parts of Europe, the UK really doesn’t have so many of these days. Still, when you look at it’s economy vis-à-vis bank holidays, it doesn’t fare all that well since a staggering 99.3 percent of all UK businesses are the small businesses (having less than 50 people) which are put under extra pressure because of the days off.
By careful planning though, small businesses are now being advised to try and work around these events – that clearly are part and parcel of British life – so that they are not so hard hit. For example, BNI Merseyside Area Director John Haynes commented, “as businesses now face yet another short bank holiday week at the end of the month, our advice is that they should simply start planning ahead now, to focus on the elements of their business which create the most profit and make them the biggest priority.”
Adjusting Bank Holidays
There is now the possibility that there will be an adjustment in Bank Holidays to help the situation. Indeed, a policy paper put out by the DCMS (Department for Culture, Media and Sports) proposing to move May Day to St. George’s Day which falls out on 23 April or even later on in the year in an attempt to “reduce the close clustering of bank holidays and extend the summer tourist.” The move is set to “ease the burden for many small businesses.”
Royal Wedding Good News
But Kate and Will’s nuptials – beautiful as they were – don’t need to spell bad news all around. There is actually some good – economic – news too. It has been said that the regal nuptials gave a “much needed boost to the weak economy.” There has been a real “feel good factor” created by the wedding with fashion sales increasing by 11.5 percent and an increase of 3.3 percent in home goods too. As well, there was a “10-point rise in the Consumer Confidence Index this month has been the sharpest increase since May 1993 and the second biggest since the survey began in 1974” alongside a “13-point increase in confidence about the economic situation during the past 12 months.” Yet this has to be seen in context and it is still only a one month figure.
So George Osborne probably can’t rush into a conclusion quite so fast as to whether Will wedding Kate is – long-term – going to be good or bad for his country’s economy. Only time will tell.