The economic situation of Great Britain

The economic situation of Great Britain

Great Britain today is a country with a highly developed, strong and independent economy. The recovery of the economy after the Second World War took almost forty years. Great Britain is in the forefront among the developed countries in terms of production growth, productivity and competitiveness.

Since Great Britain is an island state, all its external transportation and trade are connected with sea and air transport. About 9/10 of the total cargo turnover is accounted for by sea transport, including 1/4 - by cabotage. All areas of the UK, except the West Midlands, are more or less directly connected to seaports, which serve as the main transport hubs. The largest of them are London, Southampton, Liverpool, Hull and Harwich, with London and Liverpool seaports passing about half of all cargo (by cost). The UK is connected to the continent by a tunnel under the English Channel, two railway ferries (Dover - Dunkirk and Harwich - Ostend), and numerous sea car and passenger ferries - with Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Holland and France. In domestic freight transport, road transport plays the greatest role. At the same time, the network of highways is expanding and their reconstruction is taking place.

All State borders of the United Kingdom are maritime, with the exception of the border with Ireland. The coastline with a total length of more than 100 km is heavily indented. Due to the numerous bays and fjords, there is no place on the island that would be more than 120 km away from the coast.

The US and Japan are the UK's most significant trading partners, and Japanese companies often choose the UK as their base in Europe. The UK actively cooperates not only with the member countries of the Commonwealth, but also with Europe, Asia and North America. The countries of Europe and Great Britain are part of the NATO military-political bloc. The foundations of a united Europe were laid in 1957, when six countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) formed the European Economic Community (EEC). Britain's participation in the European Union helped smooth the results of the decline of the British economy after the separation of the colonies. Now the UK sees the present and future of its economy in the European market. The UK is located at a remote distance relative to the nearest hotbeds of international and internal conflicts, since most of them are currently concentrated in the Middle East and Iraq.