Transcript Unit 5 The UK Economy

Unit 5 The UK Economy
Focal points
• Absolute decline and relative decline
• Recent history
• The current UK economy
• The UK Economy in 2009
• UK Economic Forecast
Absolute Decline and
Relative Decline
• I. Events in History
• 1. Dominant in the 1880s
• (1). Producing one third of the world’s manufactured
goods.
• (2). Producing half of the world’s coal, iron, and
cotton.
• (3). Greater shipping amount than that of the rest of
the world.
Absolute Decline and
Relative Decline
• 2. Overtaken in 1900
• By 1900, the UK has been overtaken by both the
United States and Germany, losing its dominant
place in the world economy.
• 3. Decline since 1945
• (1) It’s a relative decline.
• From 1945 until the present, the story of the UK
economy is usually thought of as one of decline.
Absolute Decline and
Relative Decline
• (2). Reasons:
• A. Britain has gone heavily into debt in order to finance the
World War II, which meant that the UK entered the post-war
era with a major economic problem.
• B. As the era of empire was over, Britain lost its colonies
which used to be raw material bases and big markets for
British
• C. During the process of decolonization, Britain spent a
higher proportion of national wealth on the military than most
of its competitors.
Absolute Decline and
Relative Decline
• D. Failure to invest sufficiently in industry after the
war resulted in a relatively lower development in
economy than other countries like Germany and
Japan, etc.
• It’s a relative decline rather than an absolute one
because Britain is still wealthier and more productive
than it was in 1945. Since other countries developed
more rapidly, it has slid from being the 2nd largest
economy to being the 6th.
２００７世界主要经济体ＧＤＰ
排名
• Rank order
country
GDP
• 01 USA
137532.87亿美元
• 02 JAPAN
51034.63亿美元
• 03 GERMANY
30243.34亿美元
• 04 CHINA
• 05 UK
28792.26亿美元
24718.72亿美元
• 35 HONG KONG
•
2045.02亿美元
GDP (per capita )
45668美元
growth rate
2.2%
40055美元
2.0%
36698美元
2.6%
2177美元
11.4%
40669美元
2.9%
29298美元
5.8%
(CIA statistics, Feb. 12, 2008）
Recent History
• 4. Privatization in the 1980s
• (1) Background
• The British economy went through a particular bad period in
the 1970s with high rates of inflation and devaluation of the
Pound.
• (2) Events
• A. The conservative party under Margaret Thatcher was in
power.
• B. An extensive programme of privatization was carried out.
Many state-owned businesses were turned into private
companies.
Recent History
• (3) Influence
Positive consequences:
• The inflation was under control.
• Companies were more efficient, being able to pay higher
wages and make higher profits.
Negative consequences:
• A rapid increase in unemployment
• The public services became worse.
• The national economy as a whole continued to grow at lower
rates than its competitors.
The Current UK Economy
• II. A nation’s economy can be divided into three main areas:
“primary” industries, “secondary” industries and “tertiary”
industries
• 1. British Primary industry
• (1) Agriculture
• A. In Britain, ¾ of its land is for agriculture, among which ¼
for crops and the rest for grazing animals.
• B. the best agricultural land is in the southeast of England.
• C. Wheat and barley are the two commonest crops.
• D. Sheep are the most numerous livestock, cattle(both beef
and dairy) are common, too.
The Current UK Economy
•
•
•
•
•
•
(2) Fishing
A. Fishing industry provides 55% of the UK demand for fish.
B. Scottish ports have the majority of the fish caught.
(3) Mining
A. Energy production is an important part of UK economy.
B. In the 1970s, oil and gas were discovered under the North
Sea, making UK an overall exporter of energy since then.
• C. Three of the biggest ten companies in Britain are to be
found in the energy sector: Shell, British Petroleum and
British Gas.
North Sea oil and gas supply most of the UK's energy needs.
The Current UK Economy
• 2. Secondary Industries
• (1). Manufacturing industry
• Manufacturing industry in Britain is very strong in
pharmaceuticals(Glaxo-welcome, the biggest drug company
in the world), chemicals(ICI the second largest paint
manufacture in the world), aerospace and food and
drink(Scotch whisky, a major export)
• (2). Electronics industry
• Britain’s electronics industry is the fourth largest in the world,
but like the car industry, this is in many cases foreign owned.
The Current UK Economy
• 3. Tertiary Industries
• (1). Tertiary industries include retailing, banking, tourism,
insurance and advertising.
• (2). The importance of secondary industry has shrunk, while
the importance of tertiary or service industry grows, which
produces 65% of national wealth, accounts for about 10% of
the world’s exports of such services and employs 70% of the
UK’s workforce.
• (3). London is the one of the top three financial centers in the
world, has the greatest concentration of foreign banks in the
world and is the world’s largest foreign exchange market.
•
The Bank of England; the central bank of the United Kingdom.
• III. Case study: The Aerospace Industry
• 1. Status
• (1) After those of the US and Russia, the UK’s
aerospace industry is the third largest in the world.
• (2) It is capable of producing the full range of
aerospace products from civil and military aircrafts
to missiles, satellites and jet engines.
• (3) It produces 2% of UK national out put,
accounting for 8% of manufactured exports goods.
• 2. Major achievements
• (1) The first powered flight was made in UK in 1908.
• (2) Radar was first developed by the UK’s
Marconi company in 1922.
• (3) The first practical jet engine was
developed by the Englishman Frank Whittle in
1937.
• (4) The world first supersonic civil airliner
“Concorde” was produced collaboratively by
British and French aircraft manufacturers.