The initial estimate from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests that the UK GDP for 2013 came in at 1.9%. The figure will be revised as fuller data becomes available in due course. If confirmed, the growth seen in the UK last year is its best performance since 2007. The quarterly growth figure for Q4 came in at 0.7%, slipping back from the 0.8% level seen in the third quarter of the year and underlining the fact that the recovery is still fragile.
In previous cycles of economic contraction, the UK economy has taken somewhere between two and three years to bounce back to higher levels of output than seen at the top of the previous cycle. In the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, the UK economy has indeed returned to growth, but even after nearly six years, UK output is still below the peak of the cycle preceding the crisis. It must be remembered that growth figures are given on a relative, rather than an absolute, basis.
UK Chancellor George Osborne was quick to claim credit for the improvement in the nation’s fortunes whilst cautioning that more work needs to be done. "This is a great place to invest and a great place to grow your business. That's a verdict that is shared by many people around the world who are now putting their money into the United Kingdom because they see us as a place where the economic future of the world is being shaped." Steady on George!
He claimed that 450000 jobs were created in the UK economy last year. Unemployment has declined to 7.1% of the workforce which is below the long-term average figure of 7.27% (1971 to 2013). The best level of (recent) unemployment in the UK was 3.4% (Nov. 1973) and the worst was 12% (May 1984).