Overview: The UK is one of the world's great trading powers and financial centers, and its economy ranks among the four largest in Western Europe. The economy is essentially capitalistic; over the past thirteen years the ruling Tories have greatly reduced public ownership and contained the growth of social welfare programs. Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanized, and efficient by European standards, producing about 60% of food needs with only 1% of the labor force. The UK has large coal, natural gas, and oil reserves, and primary energy production accounts for 12% of GDP, one of the highest shares of any industrial nation. Services, particularly banking, insurance, and business services, account by far for the largest proportion of GDP while industry continues to decline in importance, now employing only 25% of the work force and generating only 21% of GDP. The economy is emerging out of its 3-year recession with only weak recovery in 1993; even so, the economy fared better in 1993 than the economies of most other European countries. Unemployment is hovering around 10% of the labor force. The government in 1992 adopted a pro-growth strategy, cutting interest rates sharply and removing the pound from the European exchange rate mechanism. Excess industrial capacity probably will moderate inflation which for the first time in a decade is below the EC average. The major economic policy question for Britain in the 1990s is the terms on which it participates in the financial and economic integration of Europe.

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $980.2 billion (1993)

National product real growth rate: 2.1% (1993)

National product per capita: $16,900 (1993)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2.6% (1993)

Unemployment rate: 10.3% (1993)

Budget:
revenues: $325.5 billion
expenditures: $400.9 billion, including capital expenditures of $33 billion (1993 est.)

Exports: $190.1 billion (f.o.b., 1993)
commodities: manufactured goods, machinery, fuels, chemicals, semifinished goods, transport equipment
partners: EC countries 56.7% (Germany 14.0%, France 11.1%, Netherlands 7.9%), US 10.9%

Imports: $221.6 billion (c.i.f., 1993)
commodities: manufactured goods, machinery, semifinished goods, foodstuffs, consumer goods
partners: EC countries 51.7% (Germany 14.9%, France 9.3%, Netherlands 8.4%), US 11.6%

External debt: $16.2 billion (June 1992)

Industrial production: growth rate 2.2% (1993 est.)

Electricity:
capacity: 99,000,000 kW
production: 317 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 5,480 kWh (1992)

Industries: production machinery including machine tools, electric power equipment, equipment for the automation of production, railroad equipment, shipbuilding, aircraft, motor vehicles and parts, electronics and communications equipment, metals, chemicals, coal, petroleum, paper and paper products, food processing, textiles, clothing, and other consumer goods

Agriculture: accounts for only 1.5% of GDP and 1% of labor force; highly mechanized and efficient farms; wide variety of crops and livestock products produced; about 60% self-sufficient in food and feed needs

Illicit drugs: gateway country for Latin American cocaine entering the European market; producer of synthetic drugs; money-laundering center

Economic aid:
donor: ODA and OOF commitments (1992-93), $3.2 billion

Currency: 1 British pound (#) = 100 pence
Exchange rates: British pounds (#) per US$1 - 0.6699 (January 1994), 0.6033 (1993), 0.5664 (1992), 0.5652 (1991), 0.5603 (1990), 0.6099 (1989)

Fiscal year: 1 April-31 March

NOTE: The information regarding United Kingdom on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of United Kingdom Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about United Kingdom Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.