12. The Economy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Part A

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a leading trading power and financial centre, has the fourth largest economy in the world, the second largest in Europe, and is a member of the European Union as well as the United Nations and North-Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The United Kingdom is composed by the political union of four constituent entities¹: England, Scotland and Wales on the island of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on the island of Ireland.

Great Britain has a mixed private and public enterprise economy². In Britain's economy private enterprises produce 75% of output and generate nearly 70% of employment³. To control and plan the economy, to avoid bankruptcy such private corporations as British Coal, British Steel, the Post Office, British Telecom, the British Airports Authorities, British Rail were nationalized after World War IE. To make the British economy more efficient the government tries to stimulate innovations in industry, encourage competition, reduce taxes, promote exports, and work for world­wide free trade. \The government provides financial assistance and guidance to small companies as small businesses employ more than a third of the private sector workforce. They are responsible for one-sixth of total output.

Trade has been a key part of the British economy for centuries. Britain has only 1% of the world population but is the fifth largest trading nation. Its prosperity has been dependent upon the export of manufactured goods in exchange for raw materials and foodstuffs. Manufactured goods account for the bulk of all commodity trade in both directions and foodstuffs and raw materials (including oil) account for around one-sixth of both imports and exports. |

In fact, nowadays there is no longer any difference in the broad categories of commodities imported and exported. Great Britain's trade focus has shifted from the United States to the European Community, which now makes up over 50% of Britain's trade-in addition, Commonwealth nations account for 11% of Great Britain trade. Germany, the United States, France and the Netherlands are Britain's main export markets. Exports, mainly to France, the United States, Germany, Italy and Ireland, ] are estimated at $190.1 billion and imports from the same coun­tries amount to $221.6 billion annually. The country's chief exports are manufactured goods such as electrical and electronic equipment, aerospace equipment, machinery, chemicals, textile fibers, fuels, iron and steel, and transport equipment. The leading imports are manufactured and consumer goods, foodstuffs, industrial and electrical machinery, semi-finished goods, cloth­ing and accessories, office machines and data processing equip­ment, and transport equipment.

There are several main trends that have affected Britain's economy:

• the decline in the heavy industry;

• the growth of the offshore oil" and gas industry;

• the rapid development of the electronic industry;

• the increase in the service industries, as distinct from manufacturing ones;

• the increase in the proportion of people in white collars⁸ as distinct from manual jobs.

^According to these trends the structure of the British economy can be divided into three main sectors:

1. Primary industries that deal with providing raw materials and food from the land and the sea (energy resources, agriculture, forestry, fishing and water supply) — 13%.

2. Manufacturing industries that deal with making finished goods from raw materials (electronics, aerospace, chemical, plas­tics, paper and printing industries) — 22%.

3. Service industries that deal with providing a wide variety of .services (banking, insurance, computing, tourism etc) — 65%.

Primary Industries. Britain has the largest energy resources in Europe and abundant supplies of oil and natural gas. It is the world's fifth largest oil producer. By successfully exploiting oil and gas from the North Sea Britain has become self-sufficient in energy. Coal industry is declining now but it still has considerable reserves. Half of the national consumption of energy resources is used for industrial and commercial purposes and the rest for household use.

Great Britain is also rich in such mineral resources as iron ore, tin, limestone, salt, china clay, gypsum, and lead.

The British agriculture is known for its high efficiency and productivity according to European standards and based on mod­ern technology and research. The production of some foodstuffs outstrips demand. It employs only 2% of the working population, and produces nearly 2/3 of Britain's food, needed by the country.

In Britain over three-quarters of the land is used for agricul­ture. Al most 30% of Britain's land is arable, and almost half is meadows and pastures. About three-fifths of farms are engaged in dairy or beef cattle breeding and sheep-raising. Pig-raising is also wide spread in the country. Britain is also broadly self-sufficient in milk, poultry meat and eggs. Barley, wheat, rape, potatoes, sugar beets, fruit, and vegetables are the country's main crops.

Britain is one of Europe's most important fishing nations. The fishing industry provides about 65% of British fish supplies.

1. Constituent entities — адміністративні одиниці, що входять до складу Великої Британії;

2. mixed private and public enterprise economy — еконо­міка, що ґрунтується на приватному та державному підприєм­ництві.

3. generate nearly 70% of employment — тут: створює 70 від­сотків робочих місць;

Part B

Manufacturing Industries one of the main sectors of the British economy deals with making finished goods from raw materials it is a broad category of output covering production of textiles, wood and metal products, paper, plastics, rubber, vehicles, machinery and equipment, and a host of other pro­duced goods Manufacturing includes electronics, aerospace, chemical, plastics, paper and printing industries

To start with the British manufacturing industry it is necessary to emphasize the following: while the decrease in agriculture is a long-standing trend², [the fall in the share of manufacturing industry is the major economic problem.')This phenomenon is com­mon to all developed countries. Though, thanks to the increasing use of intensive methods and modern technologies Great Britain remains one of the most highly industrialized countries of the world.

In the age of modern technology, Britain has made important advances in electronics and telecommunications equipment, aircraft and aircraft engines, radio-isotopes and new medicines.

Electronic data-processing equipment is a growing industry. Britain has originated a lot of advanced technologies in micro-electronics. The main electronic consumer goods produced are television sets with an increasing proportion of widescreen and digital sets, electronic control equipment.

The aerospace industry, 'the third largest in the world, exports over 70% of its production. It produces civil as well as military aircraft, satellites, space systems, guided weapons and components.

Over the last decades growth has been most notable in chemi­cal and electrical, electronic and instrument engineering.] Being the fifth largest in Western Europe, the chemical industry is developing intensively and exports nearly 50% of its output It includes key industrial materials such as plastics and synthetic rubber, and other products such as man-made fibres, soap and detergents, cosmetics, adhesivesdyes and links, and ingredients for the pharmaceutical industry. The production of iron and steel remains important part of the industrial economy The major areas of steel production are concentrated in south Wales and northern England.

Service industries. After the Second World War Britain had its longest period of uninterrupted economic growth, steadily increasing its importance as a world financial state and has already completed its transformation into a modern service eco­nomy.

Services have experienced the fastest growth in recent years. They account for the largest proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) and employ almost 70% of the working population

The service industries include financial, banking, retailing, wholesaling, tourism, business services, transport, insurance, investment, advertising, public relations, market research, education, administrative and government, professional services Financial services are an important source of employment and overseas earnings. .

The Bank of England, as the central bank] was nationalized in 1946 and is the bank of issue in England and Wales It is responsible for the monetary policy of the country and also manages the country's foreign exchange and gold reserves

Great Britain has 17 major commercial banks with more than 17.000 domestic and overseas branches Most of which are offices of the largest banks: HSBC (the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, London), Royal Bank of Scotland (Edinburgh), Barclays Bank (London), Lloyds TSB (the Trustee Savings Bank, London). There is also a government-run savings bank called National Savings and Investments. Some banking services are provided by the postal system⁵, savings banks, and building societies⁰.

The pound sterling is the basic unit of currency in Britain. The European Union established the euro as its unit of currency, and other EU members made the transition to the euro between 1990 and 2002^\However, the British government decided not to adopt the euro and to keep the pound as its currency.

Britain is one of the world's foremost travel destinations and tourism is an essential part of Britain's income lt employs about 1.5 million (7%) of the workforce and contributes about 3.5% to the GDP. The British Tourist Authority⁷, supported by the gov­ernment, promotes tourism in Britain and maintains hundreds of Tourist Information Centers to assist visitors.

Britain has historically been an innovator and world leader in many forms of transportation, from shipping to rail systems and aviation. Most of Britain's roads are motorways! But the network of motorways is inadequate for the volume of traffic and there are terrible congestion problems, especially in and around London.

London's main airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, are among the world's busiest centers for international travel Heathrow itself handles more than 67 million passengers a year. There are nearly 150 other licensed civil airfields in Britain.

A railway tunnel beneath the English Channel was completed in 1993, connecting England and the European continent. The main Channel Tunnel, which is 50.4 km (32 mi) long, runs from Folk stone, England, to Calais, France. Trains carry both passen­gers and freight through the tunnel. The trip through the tunnel takes about 35 minutes.

London Underground operates more than 400 km of railway Known as the tube, the system serves 275 stations, with more than 500 trains running during peak periods. The underground provides reliable public transportation for an impressive number of commuters across a larger metropolitan area. Glasgow, Liverpool, Tyne and Wear, Manchester, and Sheffield have their own urban rail system.

1.a host велика кількість;

2.a long-standing trend — довготривала тенденція;

3.guided-weapons — самокерована зброя;

4.a modern service economy — сучасна економіка, яка ґрунтується на сфері послуг;

5.the postal system — система поштових переказів;

6. building societies — житлово-будівельні товариства, фінансові установи, які залучають інвестиції для подальшого кредитування житлового будівництва;

7. the British Tourist Authority — Департамент зі справ туризму Великої Британії;

8.congestion problems — проблеми заторів дорожнього руху;

9.urban rail system — залізнична система приміського cполучення.

Part C

England (with the population of 50.431.700, 2005) is the largest and most populous constituent country of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total population of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the North Sea, Irish Sea, Atlantic an, and English Channel.

Historically England is divided into the following economic regions: the South of England, Central England or the Midlands1, and Northern England.

The South-East is the largest and most populous part of England. More than one-third of Britain's population and eco­nomic activity is concentrated in southeastern England, in and around London.

London is at the heart of Britain's economy. Manufacturing has steadily declined and today accounts for only 10 percent of total employment. The printing and publishing industry is now a leading employer. Electrical and electronic engineering; food, drink, and tobacco industries, chemicals and synthetic fibers are also important to the economy.

London is a major global financial centre, rivaled only by Tokyo and New York. It leads other cities in the number of international banks, the amount of foreign lending, the activity of the foreign exchange market, and the size of its international insurance business.

The financial services sector is a major source of overall employment in London. The Bank of England, Lloyd's3, the Stock Exchange4, and numerous other banks and investment companies have their headquarters there, primarily in the City5, but increas­ingly at Canary Wharf6. Currently, over 85% (3.2 million) of the employed population of Greater London7 works in the service industries including tourism. Another half a million employees residing in Greater London work in manufacturing and construc­tion, almost equally divided between both.

The Port of London is the largest and commercially most important in Britain. London exports manufactured goods and imports petroleum, tea, wool, raw sugar, timber, butter, metals, and meat. Consumer goods, clothing, precision instruments, jewelry, and stationery are produced, but manufacturing has lost a number of jobs in the once-dominant textile, furniture, and chemical-processing industries as firms have moved outside the area. Engineering and scientific research are also important to the economy.

In the centre of England — the Midlands — there are industrial centre of Birmingham and the Black Country5. The Midlands was formerly a great coal-mining region. The great city of Manchester is the centre of the English textile industry.

Scotland (with population 5.062.011) has a highly developed western style open mixed economy, the third largest GDP per capita of any region of the United Kingdom after London and the South East of England.

Scotland has plenty of natural resources from fertile land, suitable for agriculture, to oil and gas. In terms of mineral resources, Scotland produces coal, zinc and iron. With Scottish waters consisting of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil resources in the European Union — Scotland is the EU's largest petroleum producer.

Traditionally, the Scottish economy has been dominated by heavy industry, shipbuilding, coal-mining and steel industries. De-industrialization during the 1970's and 1980's shifted from manufacturing focus towards a more service orientated economy.

Edinburgh is the administrative capital of Scotland and the sixth largest financial centre in Europe, with many large finance firms concentrated there, including: the Royal Bank of Scotland (the second largest bank in Europe); HBOS (Halifax Bank of Scotland); and Standard Life. The Scottish finance sector has grown to the point where it is the sixth largest management centre in Europe. Scotland is home to9 a unit of the London Stock Exchange. Based in Glasgow — Scotland's largest city- it is the largest regional stock exchange in the UK and regularly handles between a third and a half of all transactions by Britain's private investors.

Total Scottish exports refer to manufacturing. The textile industry is the 7th largest exporter in Scotland accounting ffit over 3% of all Scottish manufactured products, Glasgow is Scotland's leading seaport and is the fourth largest manufactur­ing centre in the UK, accounting for over 60$Poн^cotland's man­ufactured exports. Scotland's primary exports include whisky, textiles (woolens, silks, and linens), beer, electronics and finan­cial services.

Scotland's excellence in electronics is evident in the computer industry. In this sector alone, the country produces one-third of branded personal computers sold in Europe and 7 per cent of the world's output.

Only about one quarter of the land is under cultivation — mainly in cereals. Barley, wheat and potatoes are grown in eastern parts of Scotland. Agriculture, especially cropping in Scotland, is highly mechanized and generally efficient.

Wales (population 2,903,085) characterized by farms and pas­toral highlands10. The industrial wealth of Wales is concentrated in the southern counties bordering on the Bristol Channel. This area has large steel works, oil refineries, tinplate and copper foundries. Cardiff, the modern national capital of Wales, is a port and also an administrative and educational centre. Cardiff rose to importance with the coal-mining and iron industries. Heavy industry, once a mainstay of the Welsh economy has largely been in decline over the past century but is still very apparent. Nearly all the tinplate and much of the aluminum of sheet steel products in the UK are produced in Welsh plants. Much of the ore is now imported and some of the metal produced is re-exported.

Wales is now home to more than 300 overseas-owned manufacturing companies, including major multi-nationals such as Sony, Bosch, Ford, Panasonic and Toyota. It has the largest con­centration of Japanese manufacturing companies in Britain, mainly in electronics.

Approximately 80% of the land in Wales is used for agriculture. With its grassy and hilly terrain, livestock farming is more common than crop cultivation. Cattle farming for beef and dairy products are also wide-spread. Wales's fishing industry is con­centrated mainly along the Bristol Channel. Agriculture, forestry and fishing only contribute to 1.5 % of the economy. The modern Welsh economy is dominated by the service sector.

Swansea, Newport and, in particular, Cardiff are centre for retail, hotels and restaurants, financial and business services. A relatively high proportion of jobs in service sector in Wales are in the non­productive public sector: public administration, health and education.

With its mountainous landscape and numerous sandy beaches, Wales has always attracted much tourism.

The Northern Ireland (pop. 1,700,000) economy is the small­est of the four economies making up the United Kingdom.

The land of Northern Ireland is mountainous and has few natural resources: chalk, clays, lime stones and gravels. The economy

relies on the import of raw materials (especially coal and oil) from other parts of Great Britain.

Heavy industry is concentrated in and around the capital of Northern Ireland — Belfast, where shipbuilding became a main­stay of employment. Machinery and equipment manufacturing, food processing, and textile and electronics manufacturing are the leading industries. Other industries such as papermaking, furniture manufacturing, aerospace and shipbuilding are also important, concentrated mostly in the eastern parts of Northern Ireland. Of these different industries, Northern Ireland's fine linens is one of the most notable and is considered as one of the most well-known around Europe. Although its share of economic output has declined, manufacturing output in Northern Ireland has remained almost unchanged after a period of steep manufacturing growth between 1998 and 2001. However, this overall picture of health hides a dramatic shift in manufacturing priorities, with the decline of traditional industries, such as textiles and shipbuilding, at the expense of high-tech and capital-intensive industries. In 2005, chemicals and engineering were the only two manufacturing sub-sectors to record growth, while output of textiles fell by 18%. Engineering is the largest manufacturing sub-sector in Northern Ireland, particularly in the fields of aerospace and heavy machinery. More recently the local economy has benefited from major investment by many large multi-national corpo­rations into high-tech industry. These large organizations are attracted by government subsidies and the highly skilled workforce in Northern Ireland.

Farming (livestock, dairy products, cereals, and potatoes) is the largest single occupation. Agriculture in Northern Ireland is heavily mechanized. In 2000 agriculture accounted for 2.4% of economic output in Northern Ireland, compared to 1% in the United Kingdom as a whole. As in the rest of the United Kingdom, livestock and dairy account for the majority of agricultural out­put. The main crops are potatoes, barley and wheat.

1. The Midlands — центральна частина Англії;

2. rivaled by — тут: який випереджають;

3. Lloyd's — страхове товариство Ллойда;

4. the Stock Exchange — фондова біржа;

5. the City — Сіті; діловий центр Лондона;