The continued progression with vaccine programmes across most of the developed world and the approach of Spring encourages us to look to a time when life is a little more, if not normal, then at least recognisable.
The retail, airline and hospitality industries stand ready to welcome people back. There has been an increase in consumer savings of around 30%, as lockdown restrictions prevent people spending as they normally would. There is pent up demand and we will see those businesses that have survived start to see trading pick up quickly.
The challenges the EU created in its vaccine roll out will begin to ease as the programmes across most countries kick into gear. They are likely to look to Israel, UAE and United Kingdom as models of how a vaccination programme can work.
As we move away from the worst of the pandemic the inevitable next step will be the recriminations and development of plans to mitigate the risk of the next pandemic, whenever it may come. Governments will begin to look at their debt mountain and finance ministers will shudder at the sheer scale of it; hopefully they will hold off any thought of fixing the 'issue' quickly. Economies must now be allowed to grow while we're in a place where people want to spend, invest and use the money they have.
