There’s good news ahead according to the CBI (officially the official voice of business) as they’re predicting recovery for the UK economy.  Now don’t hang up the recession t-shirts straight away as it’s not going to happen until 2010, still it might shine a little shred of light on Gordon Brown’s Sugar Puffs this morning.  This year the economy is likely to contract a further 3.9%, but in 2010 there will be 0.7% growth in the economy.  Good Old Alastair Darling has been a bit more optimistic than the official voice of business, predicting a smaller contraction of 3.5% and a larger expansion of 1.25%.  Either way a growth is a growth, and I should know I have this odd hairy lump on my back, and it’s good news.  Growth usually brings jobs and hopefully some stability to the employment market, but until then these videos should help you through the summer.

Can I kick it? Not with these hips, but if I could I might do so on one of the country’s 29 five-a-side centres. You don’t think it, but someone has them as a business, and that’s Goal Soccer Centres, who’ve seen profits up 20%, giving them over £3.5m to buy some half time oranges. The firm has plans to open six new centres next year and has a total of 40 sites in its business plan. With the country enjoying something of a sporting renaissance it might be time to give the jockstrap a wash and buy boss Keith Rogers a soapy lager, or at least offer to take him dogging – footballers love that. Not just footballers…

Here in the UK, about 25% of us bother to use our mobiles to access the internet. So there’s 75% there to grow into…over in India (200m mobile users) the handset is the most used means of getting online. Brit firms are beginning to wake up to this potential, and we’re leading the way in finding new ways to exploit the internet through the mobile – in fact London has eclipsed the USA’s Silicon Valley for mobile start-ups. Flirtomatic is a mobile-only dating service; Mippin, a web-content aggregator for mobiles; Reporo, which brands itself as Bebo for your mobile; Actionality lets companies to develop mobile ads around games; eBuddy is a mobile messaging service; and Plazes, a social networking offering that is based on the user’s location, has been sold to Nokia. This is a good space to be in: despite the credit crunch, which has put the brakes on many private equity investments, this sector is still attracting cash – thanks in part to mobile users spending six times more while on the web than those of us using it sat at a desk. Estimates suggest that as many as 1.2 billion people could regularly be accessing the web via their mobile by 2012. Kerr-ching! Get in!

If you’re loaded, recessions are great for reminding everyone how much cash you’ve got and rubbing their nose in it. No wonder then that luxury brands Gucci and Hermes have announced sparkling profits up 25% each. Gucci is home to designers Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen and majority owner of sports good firm Puma. Hermes is using the new cash to extending its stake in the fashion house of Jean-Paul Gaultier, it also has plans to open or renovate 15 of its stores in the second half of this year in response to increased demand. So, skinny jeans on, 80s hair crimped; get down there and show ‘em what you’ve got.

Some kind of good news at last: our old pals at LV or  Liverpool Victoria insurance to you and me, are to pay £150m to swallow the Highway Insurance Group. The move is hoped to make the green hearted scallies a “top five insurer” by 2012. So, more customers, bigger resources, more security, broader opportunities. Not many are shouting about that right now.