Many people believe that we may be through the worst of this current economic downturn, or perhaps they are just saying this in an attempt to restore some confidence back into the system. Over the last couple of weeks I have been asking my business contacts whether they have started to see any of those green shoots, the famous starting sign of a recovery. Here is what they said:

Out of all of the people that I asked or surveyed for want of a better word only fifteen percent stated that they had seen the first signs that things were starting to improve. I have to say that I had expected and had hoped for a much higher percentage than this. I personally do think that things are starting to slowly improve, with slow being the operative word. This recession has cut quite deep and any wound this deep can not heal overnight.

The most alarming statistic was that three fifths of the people surveyed stated that the situation had become even worse; this is obviously not a good sign.

I am by no means an expert in the field of the economy however I do have a number of business interests including ones where people are able to obtain cheap calls and also with a group of cost reduction consultants. My main expertise however is with helping people to overcome their stuttering speech impediments.

So when can we expect the recovery to really start in earnest? Well this answer is, of course, very difficult to answer and calling the bottom of the market can only ever be guess work. I will however give my opinion, for what it’s worth. I personally think that 2009 will continue to be a tough year, that in 2010 we will start to see that all important recovery and that in 2011 we will see some very strong growth.

The above opinion is given due to what we already know, if there is a lot more bad news out there of which we have not yet been told of then this opinion will no doubt have to be reviewed.