MIXED messages are still emerging from the fallout of the global downturn.

On Monday, the British Retail Consortium predicted a bumper, high-spending (relatively) December on our high streets with many consumers going for “big ticket” purchases before the proposed restoration of VAT at 17.5%, due at the end of the year. Time will tell.

One newspaper front page last weekend screamed good news about property prices, citing new data showing long- awaited and sustained periods of growth in the housing market.

Like many other sectors of the economy, newspaper advertising revenues have taken a hit and how advertisers decide to spend their money in the next few weeks will have a critical bearing on overall performance for the year.

Inspiring confidence among consumers may be on the agenda for some editors – generating a feel-good (or at least feel better) factor among readers between now and Christmas could reap rewards for advertisers.

We should therefore expect some bullish headlines designed to talk up the economy.

And yet, for all these positive signs, there are some seriously bad economic news stories doing the rounds. My ears pricked up on Saturday when an item on Radio 4 returned to a country that found itself at the epicentre of the global banking freefall.

McDonald’s is closing its franchise in Iceland because the country's financial crisis has made it too expensive to operate there. The lights will go out in the big, yellow M at all three of the country's outlets.

The franchise holder gave radio listeners a stark insight into his plight. He has to import everything, most of it from Germany. Due to the country’s weak currency, a kilo of onions now costs the same as a bottle of good whisky.

Costs of importing and preparing Big Mac delicacies have almost doubled in a year, while sales are lower than ever.

In the scheme of things, it may not command the headlines of a Lehman Brothers collapse or a Northern Rock crisis, but it's a stark reminder of how even the strongest consumer brands are struggling to maintain their market in the current climate.