TOUGH TIMES: Middleton's managing partner Nick Nicholas Middletons' top man remains confident about growth prospects in the

TOUGH TIMES: Middleton's managing You’re out of free articles for this month Login Sign up To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in. Username or Email Password Keep me signed in on this device. Forgot password? partner Nick Nicholas

Middletons' top man remains confident about growth prospects in the Western Australian market, despite doom and gloom predictions for the WA economy in a report released by Access Economics.

"Perth has been in a boom economy or a boom environment for a number of years, and clearly there were signs there for a lot of last year that [position] was going to be impacted by the world wide economic crisis," Middletons' managing partner Nick Nicholas said.

"But our assessment of the market there was that there would still be some growth, albeit much less growth that there had been in the previous 12 to 24 months," he said.

Middletons completed a merger with Perth-based firms Franklyn Legal and Salter Power in December 2008.

Nicholas said the Access Economics report confirmed his personal view that it would be a difficult period in the next two years for the firm's newly established western arm.

The Access Economics report, released on Monday, predicted that Western Australia would follow the rest of Australia into recession by 2011.

"I was always of the view that we were in for at least 12 to 18 months, if not two years, of difficult trading conditions, so I think that report merely highlights that effect is going to be the case. It's likely to be closer to a two-year time frame."

- Laura MacIntyre