"Most exporters are benefiting now that the dollar has started to strengthen," says Master Cutler Gordon Bridge.

"Exporters are seeing a big advantage and the good news is this is an export orientated region."

Mr Bridge says rising raw material and energy costs are having an effect, but that is not proving a big disadvantage to companies that add significant amounts of value when turning raw materials into finished products.

The Master Cutler would like to see the Bank of England worry less about inflation when it sets interest rates and more about the impact rates have on growth.

And, he predicts the United States will emerge from the current slump faster than the United Kingdom because its central bank, the Federal Reserve, considers a range of economic indicators.

Martin Howell, the former Corus executive who takes over as Master Cutler in a month's time, agrees.

He argues that external factors are driving inflation and will drive it above Government targets and he believes that, faced with an election he could well lose, Prime Minister Gordon Brown will become less concerned about fiscal rules and more concerned about "getting the economy performing something like decently."

· Manufacturing companies in the region are seeing an increasing number of skilled workers coming back in to engineering, according to Master Cutler Gordon Bridge.

"A lot of people, skilled people, skilled machinists, left the industry and went to do a variety of other things, but these people are wanting to come back because, at last, people are seeing a career and a future in manufacturing," he says.

Mr Bridge believes an increasing number of bright young people are likely to turn their back on the idea of going away to university and ending up with debts running into thousands of pounds and opting, instead, to take advanced apprenticeships and then study for a degree in their spare time.



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