The latest UK jobs data provides further evidence that the jobs market stabilised in the final weeks of 2020, following a turbulent autumn.

While the Government’s furlough scheme is no doubt casting a rose-tinted light on today’s unemployment figures, the rise in average weekly earnings combined with both the effect of continually depressed interest rates and lower consumer spending as a result of rolling lockdowns, has led to higher than expected savings for this stage of the economic cycle.

This has created a unique environment where lenders are flush with liquidity in a low-yield environment and, as a result, the economy is like a coiled spring as lenders prepare for the potential of negative interest rates and look to deploy capital to support resilient business sectors.

In the current scenario, many investors are sitting on cash piles that are not appreciating in value while agile companies, although undoubtedly bolstered by the roadmap out of lockdown announced yesterday, are still in a state of limbo and require support with widespread and long-term growth initiatives that allow them to flourish. Banks and lenders are looking out for any directive on which sectors remain a Government priority to provide the liquidity to allow this.