UK GDP per capita compared to our comparators
SirMickTravis
Posts: 2,607 Forum Member
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Who would be our comparators? I'm thinking of the leading European and English speaking economies. I was surprised how badly we fare. Our poor performance is masked by the fact that we had a pretty deep recession to recover from and a faster growing population than most of Europe. These are PPP figures from the CIA, which you can argue about being the best but what they do is mean that currency fluctuation won't confuse the picture.
Switzerland - 55200
USA - 54800
Netherlands - 47400
Australia - 46600
Austria - 45400
Sweden - 44700
Germany - 44700
Canada - 44500
Denmark - 44300
Belgium - 41700
Finland - 40500
France 40400
UK - 37700
I've left out Norway which is beyond the scale due to oil wealth. I'm not sure what we can do but when you consider how much London pushes up the average we really are well back. It's safe to say Italy has now been relegated from the top table. Will the UK soon follow suit?
Switzerland - 55200
USA - 54800
Netherlands - 47400
Australia - 46600
Austria - 45400
Sweden - 44700
Germany - 44700
Canada - 44500
Denmark - 44300
Belgium - 41700
Finland - 40500
France 40400
UK - 37700
I've left out Norway which is beyond the scale due to oil wealth. I'm not sure what we can do but when you consider how much London pushes up the average we really are well back. It's safe to say Italy has now been relegated from the top table. Will the UK soon follow suit?
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Actually Andrew Neil from the Daily Politics who is definitely not from or of the left was raising the issue of GDP PER CAPITA before the general election.
It's a valid issue if rises in national GDP don't really benefit the average INDIVIDUAL as much in the UK as it does in comparable developed countries.
Indeed. Governments of both left and right have focussed on total growth rather than per capita. This masks the fact that although there has been a lot of immigration contributing to more growth overall, per capita incomes have not been rising that fast.
Lessons to be learned.
It's been a matter of concern for a number of years, that the recovery isn't increasing productivity.
Actually it is not and this is one of the reasons why wages are not growing faster and one of the reasons why the growth forecast was downgraded. Productivity in this country is poor and it needs to change. The left may not like it since one way is to reduce regulation or at least make compliance a lot easier.
lack of investment by poor management, poor infrastructure, too much part time working, lack of training are a few more reasons I could think of.
Masses of cheap imported labour driving down wages/incomes so paying less tax but using the same level if not more resources.
Getting people to do the same job for less increases productivity, but productivity is still piss poor after all these years. Time to look elsewhere for a reason.
They've had 5 years to give it a go and don't seem to have got very far.
And most of the countries above us are subject to very similar regulation, moving in Somalia's direction is not the way to go IMHO.
Why? Either GDP per capita is a significant statistic or it's not. If it is than Switzerland and the USA are top of that list and therefore we should seek to emulate then (why should the UK settle for anything less than top spot?).
If it's not then what is the purpose of this thread, other than yet another selective use of statistics by a left leaning member to suggest that the economy isn't doing well?
perhaps it's a lack of motivation. would you produce more for piss poor wages?
Companies have cut investment rather than making people unemployed. Training is poor because we have allowed schemes such as Intra-Company-Transfers and the shortage occupations list to replace actually training workers.
At the risk of starting another interminable thread that the last Labour administration were totally blameless for what happened under their watch, much of the coalition government was spent getting the deficit down. It was one of the more left wing members of the coalition government who was the biggest supporters of ICTs - but then he had the good grace to lose his seat.
We should also make a proper attempt to ensure that regulation is appropriate for a modern economy.
Because the other countries of the EU don't have exactly the same 'problem'...
some do. some don't.
do you think romania is importing millions of workers?
Yes, and that lesson is that statistics can be distorted by extreme results at both the top and the bottom of the scale.
From 2009 until 2013 (the last year for the comparable figures), the UK has been performing better, growing GDP per capita by 12.7%. This compares to Germany (11.0%), France (2.2%), Italy (-3.5%) and Spain (-5.7%)
So - we're on the way back but there's a long way still to go. The problem is that on this measure. the UK took a gigantic fall 6 to 8 years ago.
Source
Oh dear.
Germany certainly are. And France. And they're both ahead of us.
Next fruitcake theory please.
It's not about how much the Labour administration were to blame or but how much Labour were blamed for that the next two administrations are continuing.
And you've not been able at all to address the point that most of the countries that do better than us are subject to similar regulation as us, preferring to start an interminable thread on the supposed failings of Labour, which have been continued by the Tories anyway.
we are predicted to overtake the french economy this year (or next year - can't remember which). as for germany, they will always have a strong economy, thanks to tying the value of the euro to the mark, which made their exports very competitive.
next fruitcake reply please.:D
Not really lack of motivation. Productivity isn't how hard you work all day it's what gets done when your working, working smarter if you like. If you don't have tools to do the job properly, if it takes you hours to visit a customer because the roads are gridlocked or if the trains are delayed.
You don't see the Germans busting a gut, but they're much more productive than we are and have even more immigration than we do.
Low Pay has been linked to lower productivity.
http://pwc.blogs.com/economics_in_business/2014/04/pay-and-productivity-an-economic-perspective.html