UNIQUE advantages could help Kent escape the worst of the UK’s economic slowdown, according to a senior economist on the day that interest rates fell.

The Royal Bank of Scotland’s Stephen Boyle pointed to the Thames Gateway, new high speed trains, and proximity to mainland Europe as good factors.

The bank has already reported that the south east economy as a whole bucked the UK trend in December as activity growth accelerated.

Mr Boyle singled out the Thames Gateway as a key advantage for the county. "To have a development at that magnitude on your doorstep and, in particular, it it continues through a period of more general slowdown, then it’s going to give Kent as asset and advantage that other areas simply do not have," he said.

But while the county and the wider region were bucking the trend, that did not mean that both would escape unscathed. "The south east economy is bucking the more geenral slowdown trend but I don’t think it will be entriely immudne from the slowdown."

Despite widespread fears, Mr Boyle was confident that there would be no recession in the UK. And hHe told business leaders at Chart Hills Golf Club, near Headcorn, that he expected a further quarter per cent interest rate cut, taking it to five per cent.

Yesterday, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee announced a quarter point cut to 5.25 per cent, easing pressure on borrowers.

But Mr Boyle shared the MPC’s concern over inflation which had prevented the deeper cut some business leaders had been calling for. Pressures from higher food, energy and commodity prices would make it unlikely that there would be further cuts beyond the next one, possibly in May.

"We expect that to be the end of the rate-cutting cycle in the UK. That will give an impetus to UK growth and should be one of the reasons why we avoid slipping into the kind of recession we are seeing in the United States."