On December 9, the German newspaper Die Welt** published a report entitled "The Lost 15 Years", the full text of which is excerpted as follows:
Here's a report on failure: economists in a big analysis prove that the British economy lost 15 years. In terms of wages, productivity and investment, other countries, even Germany, are significantly more prosperous than the UK. How bad is the situation in the UK?
Tosten Bell, head of the British think tank Resolution, said that even though there are widespread complaints about weak economic growth and weak location in most developed Western countries, especially in Germany, the UK has fared particularly badly over the past 15 years.
Bell explained that Britain "is going downhill". Since the financial crisis, investment, wages, economic growth, and productivity have stagnated. As a result, "most of the countries we like to compare ourselves to – Germany, France, the Netherlands, Canada, and Australia – are now much more prosperous than we are."
In terms of household income: For example, the middle class has household incomes 20% higher in Germany than in the UK, 9% higher in France, not to mention Canada (48%) and the US (64%).
In the lower income bracket, the gap with Germany is 26 percent, or around £4,300 ($5,450) a year, as the situation in the UK is more uneven. Even in the upper income bracket, German households earn 6% more in purchasing power parity terms than in the UK.
Bell and his colleagues, together with the Center for Economic Performance Research, studied the situation in detail in a multi-year project. Recently, in an informative report, they published the causes of the dilemma and possible countermeasures.
The development of real wages has been particularly pronounced. "We haven't seen growth here since the collapse of Northern Stone Bank in 2007," Bell said. "By the middle of this year, average real income was 7 per cent lower than at the beginning of 2008. In other words: if the pre-financial crisis growth trend continues, the average annual salary will be 1£070,000.
Productivity growth has been equally slow – productivity is the number of goods or services produced per unit of time – and the average level of productivity in the UK has barely improved over the years.
The gap between the United States and Germany, France, the United Kingdom, is wider than it was 20 years ago. In the UK, this development is often referred to as the "productivity mystery". For many years, experts from the Bank of England, ** departments, universities and research institutes have been studying the reasons for this.
Weak investment in the economic community and ** is often cited as the reason. Real investment in the UK averages 19% of gross domestic product (GDP), the lowest in the G7. The UK has also underperformed in public sector investment, often ranking low among OECD countries for many years. OECD countries invest almost 50% more relative to GDP (than the UK).
The consequences of years of neglect of infrastructure are already being felt: the absence of major transport arteries, such as the recent massive curtailment of the London-Manchester HS2 high-speed railway, and health care. The number of NMR machines per capita in the UK is only half of the OECD average. "It's acceptable to cut back investment for a few years, but the UK has seen too little investment over the last 40 years," Bell reminded. ”
The great political and economic uncertainty is seen as one of the reasons for the weakness in investment. Brexit is one of these factors, with declining exports from the chemical and automotive sectors indicating a weakening of competitiveness.
In addition to this, there are repeated adjustments to the tax system and turmoil at the top level. Since 2015, the UK has had five prime ministers. During this period, the UK has also experienced 7 Chancellors of the Exchequer and 8 Secretaries of State for Business. (Compiled by Liu Meiyan).
*: Refer to the news network.