Introduction
The UK Economy is the largest in Europe after Germany, at the same time it is also ranked as the fifth worldwide as per the market exchange rates, that is, in terms of GDP.
The GDP of the UK Economy grew by around 3 percent in the preceding fiscal (2006). London, the Capital UK is one of the most important centers of trade and commerce in the world along with New York City and Tokyo. The UK Economy is characterized by a free market involving a low taxation and regulation on the part of the administration.
Demography And Social Indicators of UK
United kingdom (UK) is ranked 21st in the world in terms of population with 61.28 million people residing there in mid 2004. According to data obtained from UNDP HD Indicators, national growth rate in UK during the 1975-2002 was 0.3%. This was much lower than the high-income countries' growth of 0.6 %.
UK (United Kingdom) estimate of population density is 243 persons per sq km for July 2005. Almost 89% of the people live in urban areas and enjoy high life expectancy at birth of 77 years, according to (1997-2003) World Bank figures.
The UNDP 2004 report shows that 12.5% of UK's population lives below income poverty line (50% of median household income). All the people in UK enjoy access to an improved water source. Gross primary enrollment, which denotes the percent of school-age population, is 101%, with both male and female enrolled equitably. Adult Literacy rate is 99%. UK is ranked 12th in 177 countries of the world in terms of human development index.
UK's labour force growth rate of 0.2% in last six years was lower in comparison to the other high-income countries' where workforce has grown at a rate of 0.7% during these years.
Unemployment rate was estimated to be 5.10 % in 2004.
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Sectoral Overview
The Service industries comprising of health care, hospitality, real estate and food chains is however dominated by financial services including banking and insurance. It is the most significant revenue earner for the UK Economy. London in addition houses a dense concentration of overseas branches of
financial organizations from all over the world.
Industries though introduced very early to the UK Economy, are going through a steady decline since the 1960s. This sector accounts for nearly 20 percent
of the entire national output.
Agriculture in the UK is intensive, supplying nearly 60 percent of the total food demands of the nation for being extremely mechanized.
The Oil, coal and natural gas reserves in UK are considerably high and make up for about 10 percent of the national GDP.
UK KEY ECONOMIC INDICATORS
If we look at the expenditure method for calculating national income in UK, we find that almost 70% of GDP in the UK is accounted for by private consumption.
Among the other indicators of economy, the level of inflation as measured by Consumer price index was 1.6% in Dec 2004.
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