The UK, a leading trading power and financial center, is the third largest economy in Europe after Germany and France. Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanized, and efficient by European standards, producing about 60% of food needs with less than 2% of the labor force. The UK has large coal, natural gas, and oil resources, but its oil and natural gas reserves are declining; the UK has been a net importer of energy since 2005. Services, particularly banking, insurance, and business services, are key drivers of British GDP growth. Manufacturing, meanwhile, has declined in importance but still accounts for about 10% of economic output.
In 2008, the global financial crisis hit the economy particularly hard, due to the importance of its financial sector. Falling home prices, high consumer debt, and the global economic slowdown compounded Britain's economic problems, pushing the economy into recession in the latter half of 2008 and prompting the then BROWN (Labour) government to implement a number of measures to stimulate the economy and stabilize the financial markets. Facing burgeoning public deficits and debt levels, in 2010 the then CAMERON-led coalition government (between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats) initiated an austerity program, which has continued under the new Conservative majority government. However, the deficit still remains one of the highest in the G7, standing at 4.1% of GDP as of mid-2016, and Britain has pledged to lower its corporation tax from 20% to 17% by 2020. Britain had a debt burden of 92.2% GDP at the end of 2016.
While the UK is one of the fastest growing economies in the G7, economists are concerned about the potential negative impact of the UK’s vote to leave the EU. The UK has an extensive trade relationship with other EU members through its single market membership and economic observers have warned the exit will jeopardize its position as the central location for European financial services.
The effects are altered political alliances, changed European borders, reduced the number of communist nations
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<u>Explanation</u>:
Altered political alliances; big portion of the countries that emerged as a product of the fall of the USSR immediately were oriented towards the west, mainly the EU and NATO, and since both of this organizations were eager to spread their influence and weaken Russia as much as possible, they gladly took this countries under their wing.
changed European borders:
Multiple countries were formed, due to the fall of the USSR so a big change was witnessed in the border changes in Eastern Europe.
Reduced the number of communist nations:
After the fall of the USSR, the countries that were once members of it changed their systems completely and turned towards market economies and democracy.
