United Kingdom Profile
Population of UK (2012, CIA WORLD DATA) is 63,395,212 millon.
Area in sq. km according to CIA 2012 is 244,820.
GDP in US dollars according to CIA 2012 figures is 2.443 trillion.
GDP Per capita in US dollars (CIA) is 36,000
Growth rate of GDP in 2012 ( CIA ) was 0.2%
Background to UK Major Industries
The introduction of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher brought major changes to the sectors operating in Great Britain. Prior to Thatcher the country focused mainly on manufacturing for instance car manufacturing, coal mining. However, once she came to power, she acknowledged that Britain was no longer profitable in such industries thus the country moved to focus on the service industry. The UK now focuses on “high end services.” According to government statistics, 25 years ago one in ten people worked in this industry, now it is 1 in 5, “employing 76 % of the UK workforce (BBC 2014). Examples of particular services vary ICT (information and communication technologies), consultancy (offering advice to businesses) and R&D (research and development, particularly in scientific fields). Retail, education and transportation are also major contributors to the service industry.
Major UK Trading Partners
Major trade partners to the UK are with the USA and Germany. The UK exports the most to USA (ONS 2013) and imports the most amount from Germany (ONS 2013) making them both significant trading partners. The report by ONS (official UK government body) shows that the main exports were in categories such as food, beverages & tobacco, basic materials and fuels.
Current Transportation of UK Trade
Obviously the ability to move goods safely and cost-efficiently to markets is important for international trade. In the case...
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...n. In 2012 the United Kingdom experienced weak consumer spending and subdued business investments (Yahoo Finance). Due to this, GDP fell 0.1% and the budget deficit remained high at 7.7% of GDP. The public debt continued to increase. The United Kingdom is still trying to recover from the economic recession of 2008 (CIA).
The Economy
The United Kingdom has the second largest economy in Europe, after Germany. Lately, the government has been reducing public ownership. Agriculture is a huge industry for the United Kingdom. It is intensive and very mechanical. They can produce about 60% of their food with less than 2% of the labor force. The United Kingdom has coal, natural gas, and oil resources but the oil and natural gas reserves are declining fast. To counteract, services such as banking, insurance, and businesses services count for the largest part of GDP (CIA).
The trend toward a more globalized market has become increasingly developed in the latter half of the 20th century. Emphasis on world trade has become a dominant figure in almost every Nation’s economy. Between 1970 and 2000 world trade has experienced an increase of almost 370 percent. Concurrently, world GDP increased by 150 percent. Trade is beneficial to Nations because it allows the creation of avenues that aid in efficient allocation of resources (Canas & Coronado). Countries can gain from trade when they specialize according to their comparative advantage. This is, when they create conditions where goods and services can be produced at a lower opportunity cost than in any other country. Along the same logic, countries can also make large profits by taking advantage of another countries comparative advantage.
A recession is where there is temporary economic deterioration which lasts longer than a few months, sometimes years. This can be seen by the employment rate decreasing and the reduction of trade and industry work. This is determined by the Gross Domestic Product (GPD) which is a government statistic which shows the total country’s economy movement. This is measured every 3 months (quarterly) and it is said that if after two consecutive quarters the GPD is down then the country is seen to be in recession. (Kollewe, 2009). The most recent recession in the UK kick-started in 2008, which was seen to be one of the worst recessions the UK has seen since the Great Depression. In July 2008 was when it became increasingly obvious that we was about to enter a recession; the unemployment rate kept rising, the housing industry started to cut thousands of jobs and the whole-sale industry was declining in production. (Allen, 2010)
Well according to the Institute of Economic Affairs, if the United Kingdom leave the European Union the economy would not be affected as the Government can negotiate a way to keep some freedoms in place like movement of goods. The Institute also claim that Britain is one of the least regulated economy in Europe as a result business would still locate their company to Britain as it is easy to operate in Britain compare to the rest of Europe and also because of the trade surplus it has with other countries in the Union, the economy would not suffer any damages (Pycock 10-16).The economy of the United Kingdom is in a better position if it leaves the EU, and According to the Telegraph " The United Kingdom will be the second most successful economy in the world"(Holehouse). According to the two sources Britain could actually benefit leaving the European Union as it would be free to trade with other major countries like China, India, and Brazil. As a result the United Kingdom could position itself as a premier destination to invest and start operation in and also a stepping stone to the European market. But the according to the the Centre of European reform, the economy will suffer if the UK leave the Union as there are about 4-6 million jobs that are directly related to the Union (Springford. et.al 28). The Government cannot afford to lose that many jobs because that mean the Government would lose millions in tax money as a lot companies would move to other countries. Because the United Kingdom is typically chosen to be the first country as their starting base if they want to do business with the EU. The two claims contradict heavily as the IEA base their report that the UK can use its economic size as leverage, While CER 's claim that the UK location and also it
Since the 1960s, there has been a large shift from the other two industry sectors to the Tertiary Sector in the UK. The other two industry sectors Primary and secondary sectors have either moved abroad where it is cheaper for goods to be manufactured or completely shut down because of consumer trends.
Even though population plays an important role in the economy, other things, such as agriculture, industrial development, and the selling of services, are really what defines a nation’s economy and are what really defines the difference between the two economies. Agriculture in America makes up twelve percent of the GDP. In England, however, agriculture only make...
The center of England’s industry is based on its coal mining and natural gases. They also do things with nuclear energy. Although all these things make England most of its money agriculture and fishing does bring in some doe. They produce milk and other dairy products, and they farm vegetables and meat. Since England is an island there is a lot of water to fish so they have an abundance of resources in the ocean.
As Ian Fletcher pointed out in Free Trade Doesn’t Work: What Should Replace it And Why, nations need a well-chosen balance between openness and closure toward the larger world economy (Fletc...
... tax tariff. Based on the assumption that the company is exporting the finished goods to major developed countries such as the U.S. and the E.U. the transportation costs is high.
Many countries in the world have been suffering a recession in their economies and UK has not been an exception. A recession is a macroeconomic term describing one of the two business cycles that economies go through. The business cycles is characterized by either a boom where there are more business activities carried with a rapid economic growth and points of recession where there is retardation min economic growth. Various aspects and factors contribute to economic growth, which is measured through GDP. This factor may include savings, investments government spending plus other factors within either an increase or a decrease. Reduction in spending may lead to a recession while a n increase in spending may lead to expansion that is a boom in the economy.
Logistics is the designing and managing of a system in order to control the flow of material throughout a corporation. This is a very important part of an international company because of geographical barriers. Logistics of an international company includes movement of raw materials, coordinating flows into and out of different countries, choices of transportation, cost of the transportation, packaging the product for shipment, storing the product, and managing the entire process. The concept of logistics is fairly new in the business world. The theoretical development was not used until 1966. Since then, many business practices have evolved and logistics currently costs between 10 and 25 percent of the total cost of an international purchase.
The transportation & logistics industry is a form of industry that keeps people and products on the move, it includes airlines and airports, shipping companies, logistics service providers and other transportation companies. That’s why it is considered the backbone of modern global supply chains. In a place like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that has diverse geography with a dry desert and great temperature extremes and a large area of about 2.1 million square km, a transportation & logistics industry is a necessity. Imagine you need to move from one city to another (of course it will be so hard to cross large areas of empty deserts) you have only two options to transfer from one to another city; the first option is to drive and the second option is to fly and ship your car via a car transport carrier. The harsh climate in Saudi Arabia makes people to prefer using the second option, this cause the market of transport market to enlarge. Albassami International Group is one of the biggest companies established to satisfy those needs. It is considered one of the biggest companies specialized in vehicle transportation in the Middle East. The philosophy of the company is to serve the needs of the clients over the span of thirty two years, throughout which they constantly had an eye to the future by evaluating the most appropriate ways in which to make transporting clients’ vehicles via the best and safest answer. They operate round the clock to serve clients at all times.
This event has been drove by the concerns of currency traders who subscribed to the possibility that Brexit might implicate permanent damage on the Britain's economy. This assumption however has been counterfactual as Britain's economy is strong enough to prevent sudden collapse despite temporary jitters. Ever since then, the pound has been traded around 15 percent lower in comparison to the dollar and 12 percent lower when compared with euro. Although it results in domestic inflation that rises faster than workers’ wages, it proved to be be a beneficial economic boon for UK exporters due to the soaring cost of imports. This is a crucial key factor for the automotive industry in particular, where vehicles which may be completed in the UK are often comprised of imported component parts. As a matter of fact, automotive industry is considered the most vulnerable sector in the advent of Brexit because of its global exposure and heavy dependence on foreign workers. Though , both imports and exports in the UK has been boosted by weaker pound as currency strategists pointed that sterling shall remain volatile until greater clarity about the UK’s Brexit deal is
Global trade occurs between many nations. While the intent of free trade is just that for trade to occur freely without government intervention in the open market. The truth is that governments do intervene in free trade imposing many sanctions, tariffs, quotas and other economic policies to limit free trade. To better regulate governments role in free trade a General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was created in 1947 (Carbaugh, 2011, p. 191). GATT helped trade by having all nations, included in the original group, trade on mutually beneficial policies. GATT has since been replaced by the World Trade Organization (WTO) that still honors many policies of GATT that now includes 153 nations that is inclusive of 97% of all world trade.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (London: 2005). pp. 51, 71-72. Accessed May 3, 2014. http://www.jhud.co.uk/huddleston/uk2005_tcm77-248610.pdf.
“Logistic is the process of planning, implementing and controlling the efficient, effective flow of goods storage of goods, services and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption for the purpose of conforming to customer requirements”