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Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on the UK economy flatlining again in July · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: Corresponding Gavin Grays with us evening to you, Gevin Hi there.
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  Speaker 2: So we were not expecting the UK economy to flatline.
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  Speaker 1: We were expecting tiny bit of growth.
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  Speaker 2: What happened, Yeah, big disappointment. Just announced within the last
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  Speaker 2: hour that the UK economy just basically flatlined for the
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  Speaker 2: second month in a row. Analysts have thought there'd be
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  Speaker 2: a slight growth to GDP of zero point two percent.
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  Speaker 2: So what went wrong? Well, we're being told there is
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  Speaker 2: longer term strength in the services sector, so there should
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  Speaker 2: be a growth over the last three months as a
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  Speaker 2: whole and into the future. But it's other things that
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  Speaker 2: have brought the figures down, so really honing down more
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  Speaker 2: precisely on what they reckon. The growth was led by
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  Speaker 2: computer programmers and the health sector, which recovered from strike
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  Speaker 2: action back in June, but there were four in advertising companies,
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  Speaker 2: architects and engineers, with manufacturing crucially falling overall, with a
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  Speaker 2: particularly poor month for car and machinery firms. Construction industry
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  Speaker 2: also suffered badly. So yeah, the government going to look
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  Speaker 2: at this. I'm going to think, well, you know, we're
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  Speaker 2: still looking back at the previous administration of the previous government.
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  Speaker 2: And indeed, the UK did have the highest growth rate
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  Speaker 2: for the first six months of twenty twenty four among
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  Speaker 2: the group of G seven nations. But I think a
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  Speaker 2: second line of flatlining will be of some concern to
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  Speaker 2: those in government. Kevin, Listen, this Apple Tech situation in
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  Speaker 2: Ireland is fascinating. Am I reading this right? That Ireland
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  Speaker 2: actually doesn't want the text money. Yes, so this is
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  Speaker 2: quite a complex story and it goes back over some
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  Speaker 2: eight or more years. But originally, when the company Apple
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  Speaker 2: headquartered its business for Europe, Middle East and that sort
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  Speaker 2: of region, they decided to go to Ireland for it.
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  Speaker 2: Why well, because Ireland was offering massive tax discounts, and
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  Speaker 2: indeed it was said that that had been a bigger
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  Speaker 2: incentive to lure big companies away from countries like the
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  Speaker 2: UK and the rest of the EU. And boy it worked.
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  Speaker 2: Suddenly Dublin was springing up with a whole load of
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  Speaker 2: huge multinational companies headquartering their regional offices in Dublin. But
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  Speaker 2: the Irish government gave these tax advantages to Apple. The
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  Speaker 2: European top Court said it was illegal. The Irish government said, well,
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  Speaker 2: we don't want the tax back and we don't think
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  Speaker 2: it's illegal. But after all the toing and throwing, Apple
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  Speaker 2: indeed had been ordered to pay Ireland roughly twenty four
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  Speaker 2: billion New Zealand dollars in unpaid taxes. The Irish government
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  Speaker 2: has said it will respect the ruling. The ruling incident,
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  Speaker 2: it was because effectively no other company was being given
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  Speaker 2: the tax advantages that Apple were being given, so they
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  Speaker 2: said that was unfair. As I said, though for the
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  Speaker 2: period of time it's taken to discuss this, with the
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  Speaker 2: original decision decision covering the period nineteen ninety one to
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  Speaker 2: twenty fourteen, then an appeal on it. As you can imagine,
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  Speaker 2: plenty of others have tried to take advantage of that
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  Speaker 2: particular scheme in Ireland. It's good to talk to you,
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  Speaker 2: Gevin as always. Thank you so much. Gevin Gray are
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  Speaker 2: UK correspondent.
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