Trucking along

·        Data released since the start of the year shows the outlook has improved markedly since the end of 2016. Rising business confidence is driving job creation and providing a key support to household income and consumer spending while wages growth remains weak. In 2017, we expect 1.8% GDP growth followed by 2.2% in 2018. However, as the labour market continues to tighten and wages growth grinds higher we expect GDP growth to rise to 2.9% in 2019 and 3.4% in 2020.

·        Monetary policy will remain supportive until there