Hi guys and welcome back to our blog, I’m Giacomo, aka James, and today we’re going to analyze some facts about British economy, like the economic performance, trade, natural resources and so on. Let’s discover more about how it works!
Economic performance
Britain is a modern and developed
country that has a mixed economy and the private sector is the most important. The
public sector changes over the past two decades because the government has
reduced public ownership and contained the growth of social welfare programmes.
The British economy is one of the strongest in Europe thanks to the high GDP*,
low levels of inflation, unemployment and interest rates. However the British
economy has also negative aspects like inequality, high poverty rate and,
compared to the rest of Europe, weak social and public services. In addition,
around 10% of the GDP comes from energy resources.
*GDP = total value of all the products and
services a country produces
Trade
In British economy, trade is very important,
in fact the UK is the fifth largest trading nation in the world, the second
largest exporter of services and the sixth of goods.
Natural resources
We have to say that in recent
years the UK’s farming community faced many problems like the mad cow disease
as BSE epidemic, the outbreak of foot, severe flooding and GM crops. Dairy
farming is concentrated in the western half of Britain, that provides milk for
the 400 different types of cheese of which the most famous are Cheddar and
Stilton, also known as «king of cheese».
In the UK fishing is very
important because it provides about 70% of domestic need and is source of
employment and income. The major products are salmon, trout and shellfish. Even
so, the UK fishing industry is in decline because there is an overexploitation
of fisheries in the North Sea. For this reason, EU has applied some measures to
stop the decline like limiting the number of days a month that fishermen can
spend at sea.
Energy Resources
Energy Resources in Britain
accounts for the 10% of the GDP, one of the highest shares of any industrial
nation. The main resources are oil and gas, which accounts for about 75% of
total UK energy consumption. There was a problem about radioactive waste when
some of the nuclear stations were privatized and stopped being productive. It
was one of the most serious pollution issues for years.
Britain is an island, therefore, it’s suitable for producing alternative energy
from wave to wind, in fact wind farms should be able to supply nearly 5% of the
national electricity requirements in a few years.
Industries
Over the last 50 years industry has declined
in importance in the UK because of the employment falling. This has contributed
to the striking differences in social and economic composition between the North
and the South. Even so, Britain remains an important manufacturing country. In
recent years the production has expanded into communications equipment,
including fiber optics, computers, machine tolls and robots. Growing industries
include paper products, pharmaceutics, rubber and plastics.
The main industries in the UK are
industrial and scientific equipment, machine tools, shipbuilding, aircrafts,
chemical and electronic products, computers, food processing, clothes.
So guys, this was my post about British economy. I’m truly interested in this topic, so I hope
you will enjoy it!
Let me know what you
think about it and leave your feedback in the comments.
Giacomo, 5sc
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