UK's Economy in Europe

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UK's Economy in Europe

When one talks about a strong economy, a few key economic indicators

will get mentioned; inflation, unemployment and economic growth. These

are considered the three main macroeconomic indicators of any economy.

To define a strong economy in the simplest form you must have a low

rate of inflation, low unemployment and steady economic growth. During

this essay there will be comparisons between other European countries

(e.g. France, Germany, Luxemburg, Belgium, Spain, Italy) and these

economic indictors mentioned as well as others.

We will start to look at inflation rates. "The British economy has

slowed over the past 12 months, but remains among the strongest in the

developed world, a report has said" (BBC News Online). Last month the

Underlying rate of inflation in the UK remained unchanged at 2.3%,

which is below the governments target rate of 2.5%, this is good for

the economy. The headline rate of inflation, which includes mortgage

interest payments, fell last month by 0.4% to 1.7%. These figures show

the rate at which prices are increasing. When we compare the UK's

annual inflation figure of 1.2% to that of Germany and France (-0.6%

in October), which is around the 2% mark, it seems that our rate is

quite low and therefore good for our economy. The Eurozone inflation

is expected to be 2.1%; this is measured by the Monetary Union Index

of Consumer Prices (MUICP). By looking at this we can see that this

figure is very close to the UK's inflation rate. On the whole

inflation in the UK is at a lower rate than that of its European

neighbours, which is an indicator of a strong economy.

When we look at unemployment in the UK we can see that it is around

900,000 or 2.3%. This is the lowest it has been since the 1970's and

is at a lower percentage rate than Japan and the USA. Germany who has

recently announced that they have just entered a recession has a very

high rate of unemployment at around 8.0% and France, Finland and Spain

even higher. The UK, Netherlands and Luxemburg are amongst the lowest

unemployment rates in Europe. "Unemployment is up again in France and

Germany, in a sign that the eurozone's two biggest economies are still

in the grip of a downturn" (BBC News Online). France and Germany have

the largest economies in Europe and recent figures show that

unemployment increased by 15,000 a...

... middle of paper ...

...ong performance is reflected by such indicators as solid growth and

forecasts for next year predicting an annual growth of 2.75% - 3.75%.

Inflation currently at 2.3% is lower than forecasted which is a strong

indicator for a strong economy. Our unemployment is at the lowest it

has been since the 1970's and lower than that of the two biggest

economies in the world at present at 2.3% or around 900,000. Interest

rates are remaining unchanged at 4%, which is low, and the reason for

the British economy having a firm housing market. The UK's main

economic problem is the manufacturing output. It could be argued that

this sector of the economy is in recession after figures of negative

growth in the last two quarters. As a result of this the UK is

suffering from an all time high trade deficit, which is also due to

the high value of the pound. But overall the UK economy is in a good

state taking into advantage the global economic slowdown which is

going on around it.

References:

www.bbc.co.uk

Sources:

· www.bbc.co.uk

· www.bized.ac.uk

· www.europa.eu.int

· www.ukonline.gov.uk

· The Daily Mail Newspaper

· The Business Environment - Brooks/Weatherston

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