London's Economy Today - Issue 160 - December 2015

The overview

• London’s economy grew strongly in 2014
• Monetary divide between the US Fed and European Central Bank
• UK ends the year with signs of the global slowdown impacting some sectors

Economic indicators

• London’s business activity continues to increase with the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) of business activity recorded at 57.0 in November 2015, compared to 57.2 in October 2015.
• New orders in London rising with the PMI for new orders recorded at 57.6 in November 2015 compared to 57.9 in October 2015.
• Surveyors expect house prices to rise with the net house price expectations balance in London at 13 in November 2015.

LET supplement: An economic analysis of London’s housing market

• In 2014 house prices were almost 10 times median earnings in London, compared to about four times in 1997.
• Data from the Council for Mortgage Lenders (CML) shows that the median cost of mortgages secured on properties in London increased from being 2 to 2.5 times greater than buyers’ median income in the 1980s to early 1990s, to more than 3.5 times the value of borrowers’ income by 2013.
• Average mortgage payments in recent times have been around ‘average’ levels for the past 30 years or so (at around 20 per cent of income).This is likely to be due, principally, to the very low interest rates experienced in recent years.

London’s Economy Today (LET) data to Datastore

The LET presence on Datastore aims to create more interaction and a greater personal focus for London’s Economy Today while also allowing for the incorporation of feedback and views from the readership.
http://data.london.gov.uk/gla-economics/let/