UK GDP Keeps Growing But Population Rise Limits Recovery

Britain has recovered little of the ground lost during the deep recession of 2008-09 once a rising population is taken into account, the Office for National Statistics said.

Announcing seven alternative ways of measuring economic well-being, the ONS said per capita gross domestic product remained well below its peak in 2013.

“Unlike GDP, which has now recovered substantially from the falls in the recent recession, GDP per capita has recovered only a little of the fall seen during the recession,” the UK’s statistical agency said.

It said GDP remained the “central and indispensible” measure of activity in the UK economy but said a “dashboard” of supplementary measures would help assess changes in wellbeing.

The ONS said these were:

– GDP per capita, which takes into account population growth

– Net Domestic product, which adjusts GDP for capital consumption

– Real Net National Disposable Income per capita, a measure that excludes income generated in the UK but which is not paid to UK residents

– Real Net Financial and Physical Assets, a measure of the stock of national wealth

– Real Adjusted Household Disposable Income per capita, which is the income received by UK households adjusted for inflation, taxes paid and benefits received

– Median real household income, which seeks to show whether the proceeds of growth are being evenly distributed by looking at the income received by the household in the middle of the income distribution

– Real Household Net Financial and Physical Assets, a measure of household wealth largely made up of housing and financial assets

The ONS said: “Given that it measures aggregate activity in the economy, GDP, supported by other information, inevitably and correctly plays a central role in discussion about monetary and fiscal policy and about the state of the economy generally. It is therefore of vital importance.”

via The Guardian

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