The winners of Britain’s election on July 4 will have to tackle an economy that looks stuck in a rut of slow growth with high levels of debt limiting the next government’s ability to spark a significant recovery.
After the blow dealt by the global financial crisis of 2007-09, the world’s sixth-biggest economy has been buffeted by the 2016 decision to leave the European Union, the COVID pandemic and a surge in energy and food prices in 2022.
Britain’s economic performance since the coronavirus crisis has been the weakest among the Group of Seven economies with the exception of Germany, which was also hit hard by the jump in energy prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
And the country’s inability to keep up with its peers in terms of productivity growth has contributed to a gap in living standards compared with other European countries.