THE latest report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that called for increased investment to boost economic growth and noted weak investment is hampering job creation (" Osborne warned to slow pace of austerity cuts", The Herald, June 4) should hardly come as a surprise.
Most recent figures indicate that UK economic growth has halved in the three months to the end of March, continuing a slowdown that began six months ago, demonstrating how unsustainable the recovery - which is heavily reliant on consumer spending and levels of household debt relative to income - actually is.
When it comes to total private - and public-sector investment, the UK's record is appalling, coming in 32nd position out of the 35 most advanced economies in the world, a significant concern when it comes to the future prospects of the economy.
There needs to be a radical change in mindset and a focus on increasing both public - and private-sector investment, through modest public spending increases and additional borrowing. This will see the deficit and the debt being cut, but on the back of sustainable economic growth.
Without such an approach the fragile foundations on which the economic recovery is currently based will quickly crumble.
Alex Orr,
Flat 2, 77 Leamington Terrace, Edinburgh.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article