The recovery in UK output is now clearly under way, against the background of a world recovery more rapid than we previously anticipated. Inflation has come down from 25 per cent to just below 15 per cent (both on a year earlier and on a quarterly basis). The current account deficit, after a low first quarter, appears to have worsened somewhat and is running at an annual rate of over £2 billion per annum. Looking over the next eighteen months, we can see a continuation of the current output recovery but, because of the drop in the exchange rate, inflation on a year earlier seems unlikely to fall below 10 per cent, in spite of our assumption that the next wages policy is not formally broken. The current account deficit should start to fall from early 1977; this improvement could be sufficient, on the assumption that monetary growth is held down by higher interest rates, to stabilise the exchange rate in the second half of 1977, if at a somewhat lower level than today's. Private investment should recover quite sharply in 1977, but unemployment may fall only slowly from a peak in early 1977 of about 1.3 million. This highlights the fact that this projected recovery, largely based on exports and stockbuilding, occurs in manufacturing and not also, as in 1972–3, in public and private services, which are relatively labour-intensive.

It is now clear that output in the OECD countries rose even faster in the early stage of the recovery than we had previously supposed. Between the third quarter of 1975 and the first quarter of 1976 their aggregate GDP appears to have increased at an annual rate of 7 per cent and their industrial production at 12 per cent. By the second quarter, however, stock movements were probably making a substantially smaller contribution to the expansion of demand. The rate of growth of industrial production has slowed down considerably since the spring and the same is probably true of GDP, particularly in view of the effects of the drought on European agricultural output. By the second half of next year we expect the deceleration to become more pronounced in the major countries, particularly the United States. The smaller countries have, however, been lagging behind their bigger trading partners in the recent cycle and their phase of rapid recovery is probably yet to come. In all we expect OECD countries' aggregate GDP to increase in volume by 5½–6 per cent this year and 5 per cent in 1977.

Manufacturers' and distributors' views on the effects of the Price Code towards the end of Stage 4 are summarised in this article. Since the onset of the recession, market conditions rather than price controls have determined price-levels. Market constraints have limited the use of profit safeguards and low profit relief as well. The Price Code, however, was widely blamed for contributing to lower profit-margins, particularly in its earlier stages; this was mainly because of the productivity-deduction, lack ofpricingflexibility, and delays in obtaining price increases. Less generally affected were investment, sales and marketing activities, and price-differentiation. Views on the changes to the Code required in a reviving economy are summarised.

In this article re-estimates are made of some of the main econometric models of inflation that have been proposed for the UK. Primarily these are wage inflation models, though reference is also made in the article to price equations. Estimates for each model are provided for a number of different post-war samples to investigate the reliability of each model and their adequacy in the light of recent high rates of inflation. The results for most of the models we consider are generally negative, except a wage inflation equation based on the hypothesis of a target rate of increase in real net earnings desired by workers which shows a great deal of consistency over the different sample periods.

This article sets the broad facts of the industrial performance of the UK in the post-war period within a European context. Using purchasing power parity rates the relative levels of labour productivity between countries are compared, for GDP, manufacturing and six sub-sectors of manufacturing. By 1973 the UK had the lowest level amongst the countries studied. Growth rates of output, employment and labour productivity are estimated for four periods since 1955 and the relatively slow growth rates in the UK are analysed.