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Macro Revision - Key Statistics on the UK Economy
4th May 2012
For the May and June macro papers here is a brief summary of the key macroeconomic numbers for the UK economy so that you can demonstrate good awareness to the examiners in your papers:
BBC News (May 2012): UK must boost economic growth, IMF warns
Real GDP / Economic growth
* Recession was deepest since the 1930s in terms of lost output - real GDP fell 7.3% from peak to trough
* Recovery has been weak
* Real GDP still 4.3% smaller than at the beginning of the 2008 recession
* Growth in 2011 was only 0.7%
* IMF forecasts growth of just 0.8% in 2012 - world GDP set to rise by 3.5%, but Euro Zone forecast to contract by 0.3%
UK economy said to be in double-dip - but as the NIESR says in latest report “small quarter to quarter movements of this sort are largely irrelevant to the broader picture of an economy that remains very weak.”
Components of aggregate demand (AD)
% change in component for 2011
Consumer spending: -1.2%
Investment: -1.2%
Exports: 4.6%
Imports: 1.2%
Inflation
*CPI inflation in 2011 was 4.5%
*RPI inflation in 2011 was 5.2%
*Uk inflation is eight highest in the EU (27 countries) in 2011
*Sweden had lowest inflation last year 1.1%, Hungary the highest at 5.5%
*Another year of deflation for Japan, -0.3% in 2011
Unemployment
Latest figures - up to Feb 2012
*LFS unemployment rate: 8.3% or 2.650 million people
*Youth unemployment 1,033,000 (22% of people in this age range)
*Long term unemployed: 883,000 people out of work for at least a yeart
*North-east has highest unemployment rate (11.2%), South-east has the lowest (6.3%)
Government finances
*Net borrowing in 2011/12 was £126 billion or 8.3% of GDP
*Down from £157billion, 11.25 of GDP in 2009/10
*Net government debt has risen from £760billion in 2009/10 to £1,023 billion in 2011/12 - equal 66% of UK GDP
Trade balance
2011 figures
*Current account balance was -£29bn
*Trade in goods balance was -£99.7bn
*Trade in services balance was +£71.8bn
*Net investment income was +£21bn
*Net transfers was -£22.1bn
For more background on the UK economy - go to the BBC news page
Geoff Riley
Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for over thirty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD conferences in the UK and overseas.