Despite the Bank of England's attempt to lift consumer confidence and propensity to purchase by reducing the base rate in March to the lowest ever recorded rate at 0.5% amounting to a total descent of over 400 basis points in recent months, the UK economy shows little potential of stabilising. The Bank of England has commenced the quantitative easing strategy in hope of increasing the level of liquidity in the banking system, the estimated level of activity forecasted as far higher in the next quarter then Japan endured in 6 years of its recession. The Bank now fears the UK may be entering a "deflation debt trap" where decreasing prices result in debt relatively increasing. The UK's personal debt has risen by 165% since 1997 with the average household owing £60,000 making us the debt capital of Europe.

The rate for unemployment in the UK from February now equates to 6.5% of the entire working population at 2.03million. The FSA have released a report into future regulation of the UK's financial sector proclaims the past "light touch" regulation seen over past years will be replaced by a more intrusive regulation process with profound changes to reduce bank lending in boom years and increasing the monitoring and regulation of hedge funds. Watch this space for more details over the coming months.