Bank’s agent backs regional recovery hopes

Juliette Healey gathers intelligence from her wide-ranging contacts in the business community to help inform the Monetary Policy Committee on its decion making.

In an interview with the Yorkshire Post, she said: “Yorkshire businesses are, as a group, realistic but also optimistic about the future.

“Overall, they expect to see a little growth in 2013 and a gradual pickup thereafter.

“While this hasn’t been a normal recession or a normal recovery, businesses in Yorkshire have a long history of being able to adapt to economic change and this time is no different.”

She said the region has a diverse economy, which will help it to exploit any pick-up in demand. Ms Healey added: “Yorkshire, like the rest of the UK, would benefit from exporting more.

“The good news for Yorkshire is that it has a lot of small businesses in sectors which give it significant potential for export growth.

“Those companies who are already exporting are those that have generally done better.”

She said that while there any many positive stories about business growth in Yorkshire, the region has larger-than-average construction, manufacturing and public sectors.

“(These are) all sectors that have been hard hit. So it’s not surprising that the Yorkshire and Humber unemployment rate is the third highest in the country,” added Ms Healey.

Turn to page eight to read our profile interview with Ms Healey.