WE are little more than a week into the new year and already we have plenty of further evidence, if any more were needed, that 2015 is not going to be easy.

Bank of Scotland's latest quarterly business monitor has this week shown a sharp slowing of growth in the economy north of the Border in the three months to November, with exporters coming under serious pressure.

Another survey from British Chambers of Commerce, published yesterday, shows the Scottish manufacturing sector suffered a tumble in exports in the fourth quarter of last year and expects to cut its workforce in the opening three months of 2015.

And UK-wide surveys from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply have in recent days revealed a significant slowing of growth in the UK services, construction and manufacturing sectors in December.

This slew of disappointing surveys, we should remember, comes against a backdrop of extraordinary monetary policy stimulus, with UK base rates having been at a record low of 0.5 per cent since March 2009. The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee held UK base rates yet again yesterday, and the first rise appears to be a while away.

To add to the problems, the eurozone, a key market-place for exporters in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK, is back in deflationary territory for the first time since October 2009.

You may hear a lot between now and May's General Election from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government about the eurozone troubles.

It would be politically expedient, especially for the Conservatives as they seek an overall majority next time, to attempt to blame the eurozone for the UK's continuing economic difficulties.

Any such message should be taken with a whole heap of salt.

If there were not so many people having such a miserable time because of the Coalition's ill-judged economic policies, Prime Minister David Cameron's new year message would have been almost comical.

While the new year message may not have been funny, his assertion that all was going according to some kind of long-term plan did appear somewhat ridiculous. After all, the Coalition's economic policies have resulted in a very belated and extremely unbalanced recovery, one which is now losing momentum. The Coalition's term in office has been characterised by years of falling real incomes.

Mr Cameron's clear aim in his new year message was to put the economy at the heart of the election campaign. He talked about a choice between "competence" and "chaos".

In case you were wondering, given the UK's miserable economic performance in recent years and the lack of any material sign of Chancellor George Osborne's vision of "a Britain carried aloft by the march of the makers", the prime minister was asserting that the Conservatives would provide "competence" when it came to the economy. There might be some who would have a wry chuckle at this assertion.

On a more serious note, an exit from the European Union would be likely to cause plenty of chaos. Mr Cameron has pledged to hold a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU in 2017, but he talked at the weekend about how he would be "delighted" if it could be staged earlier.

With the domestic economic outlook uncertain in any case, the danger of the UK leaving the huge free trade zone that is the EU is truly alarming. This threat is the last thing that businesses need to be hanging over them.

At times, when you hear Coalition politicians waxing lyrical about their economic record, you could be forgiven for thinking they were trying to convince themselves that they have been doing a good job.

We would all do well to remember that the UK's long overdue economic recovery has owed a very significant amount to a mini-boom in the housing market fuelled by government measures. These measures were put in place at a time when it had become ever more clear that the makers were still not marching.

This mini-boom, in terms of its timing, looked quite good for the Conservatives, putting aside the likelihood that it could be storing up further economic troubles for the future.

Figures published yesterday by Halifax showed that the surge in house prices is cooling a little. Annual UK house price inflation eased to an albeit still-punchy 7.8 per cent in the three months to December. It is good to see the rate of increase moderating, for the longer-term good of the economy.

It will be interesting to see whether house price inflation cools further, and by how much, ahead of the election.

This might be an issue of concern for the Conservatives, given their likely desire to ensure the boost to consumer sentiment from the housing market upturn lasts at least until May.

And the raft of recent evidence pointing to a significant slowdown in UK economic growth is a worry for us all.

It has been estimated, in the wake of the surveys from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, that UK gross domestic product will have grown by 0.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2014. This would be well below the long-term average rate of growth. In the third quarter, the pace of expansion was 0.7 per cent.

This slowdown in growth is most disappointing, especially given it took the UK far, far longer than the likes of Germany and the US to return to pre-2008/09 recession levels of output.

There are many hazards ahead, and it would be much better to be going into this phase from a position of strength.

In spite of Mr Cameron's claim that the long-term plan is working, the UK economy is not entering 2015 from such a position. It is lamentable that the state of affairs is such that some experts are betting that the UK economy will not even be strong enough to cope with a rise in base rates later this year, and that the Bank of England therefore might have to hold fire until 2016.

The slowdown in UK growth in recent months, and the uncertain outlook, has weighed heavily on the pound. Sterling yesterday fell to its weakest level against the dollar since July 2013, touching an intra-day low of about $1.5032.

Among the big risks ahead, the eurozone troubles will pose a significant challenge for the UK economy.

But we should not forget the UK recovery was absolutely nothing to write home about before the eurozone economic troubles intensified again.