U5 The UK Economy.pptVIP

U5 The UK Economy Absolute Decline and Relative Decline By the 1880s the British was dominant in the world,producing one third of the world’s manufactured goods,half its coal and iron,half its cotton. But the basic positive-seeming facts describing the size of economy,the high proportion of world trade that was British,and so on. Absolute Decline and Relative Decline Secondly,the era of empair was over. Thirdly,despite the relatively rapid and trouble-free process of decolonisation,Britian was was still forced to maintain a substantialand expensive military persence in many overseas locations. Fourthly,although Britain was quite badly damaged by Genman bombing during the war, its industry survived comparatively unaffected. Recent History The British economy went through a particularly bad period in the 1970s. The oil price rises at that time led to very high rates of inflation. Since then however, the picture has been brighter ,with four years of steady growth,at rateshigher than that in the rest of the EU. Investment has increased ,encouraged by low interest rates. The Current UK Economy Britain’s agricultural sector is small but effcient,producing 58% of the UK’s food needs with only 2% of its workforce. The fishing industry provides 55%of the UKdeand for fish. Enegy production is an imporment part of the UK economy,accountingfor 5%of the national wealth. The Current UK Economy Britain has large deposits of coal,mined for more than 3oo years. Due to the decline in North Sea production,and the coasts of mining and using coal cleanly,it is expected that UK will become a major importer of oi, and gas by 2015. The UK went into a recession in the second quarter of 2008. Case Study: The Aerospace industry Aerospace is one of the UK’s highest value adding manufacturing sectors. After the war the new aircraft types provided the base for the development of the civil aviation industry. However ,the years following the second world war were problematic for the UK industry.