[52] The Second Industrial Revolution was also taking place rapidly in the United States and the German Empire; this presented an increasing economic challenge for the UK, leading into the 20th century.

[60] After the Second World War, a new Labour government fully nationalised the Bank of England, civil aviation, telephone networks, railways, gas, electricity, and the coal, iron and steel industries, affecting 2.3 million workers.

[61] Post-war, the United Kingdom enjoyed a long period without a major recession; there was a rapid growth in prosperity in the 1950s and 1960s, with unemployment staying low and not exceeding 3.5% until the early 1970s.

[63] Deindustrialisation meant the closure of operations in mining, heavy industry, and manufacturing, resulting in the loss of highly paid working-class jobs.

[65] Overseas competition, lack of innovation, trade unionism, the welfare state, loss of the British Empire, and cultural attitudes have all been put forward as explanations.

The UK recorded weaker growth than many other European nations in the 1970s; even after the recession, the economy was blighted by rising unemployment and double-digit inflation, which exceeded 20% more than once and was rarely below 10% after 1973.

Denis Healey, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, was required to implement public spending cuts and other economic reforms in order to secure the loan, and for a while the British economy improved, with growth of 4.3% in early 1979.

[68] After the Winter of Discontent, when the UK was hit by numerous public sector strikes, the government of James Callaghan lost a vote of no confidence in March 1979.

[71][72] Thatcher's modernisation of the economy was far from trouble-free; her battle with inflation, which in 1980 had risen to 21.9%, resulted in a substantial increase in unemployment from 5.3% in 1979 to over 10.4% by the start of 1982, peaking at nearly 11.9% in 1984 – a level not seen in Britain since the Great Depression.

[75] Britain's economy slid into another global recession in late 1990; it shrank by a total of 6% from peak to trough,[76] and unemployment increased from around 6.9% in spring 1990 to nearly 10.7% by the end of 1993.

The government won a fourth successive election in 1992 under John Major, who had succeeded Thatcher in November 1990, but soon afterwards came Black Wednesday, which damaged the Conservative government's reputation for economic competence, and from that stage onwards, the Labour Party was ascendant in the opinion polls, particularly in the immediate aftermath of Tony Blair's election as party leader in July 1994 after the sudden death of his predecessor John Smith.

[81] Blair ran on a platform of New Labour which was characterised largely by the continuation of neo-liberal economic policies, but also supporting a strong welfare state.

[82] Four days after the election, Gordon Brown, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, gave the Bank of England the freedom to control monetary policy, which until then had been directed by the government.

[86][87] In August 2008 the IMF warned that the country's outlook had worsened due to a twin shock: financial turmoil and rising commodity prices.

[90] In March 2009, the Bank of England (BoE) cut interest rates to a then-historic low of 0.5% and began quantitative easing (QE) to boost lending and shore up the economy.

[139] The agri-food sector as a whole (agriculture and food manufacturing, wholesale, catering, and retail) was worth £120 billion and accounts for 4 million jobs in the UK.

[156][157] British companies with a major presence in the industry include BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce (the world's second-largest aircraft engine maker).

[149] In 2007 the UK had a total energy output of 9.5 quadrillion Btus (10 exajoules), of which the composition was oil (38%), natural gas (36%), coal (13%), nuclear (11%) and other renewables (2%).

[171][172] The UK is also rich in a number of natural resources including coal, tin, limestone, iron ore, salt, clay, chalk, gypsum, lead and silica.

[192][193][194][195] According to a Deutsche Bank study published in March 2015, Britain was attracting circa one billion pounds of capital inflows a month not recorded by official statistics, up to 40 per cent probably originating from Russia, which implies misreporting by financial institutions, sophisticated tax avoidance, and the UK's "safe-haven" reputation.

[205] The same VisitBritain report also discussed the effects of the pandemic on domestic travel within the UK in 2020, citing a significant reduction in spending, for an estimated decline of 62% over the previous year.

[223] Online sales account for 22% of retail spending in the UK, third highest in the world after China and South Korea, and double that of the United States.

The government of former Prime Minister Tony Blair had pledged to hold a referendum to decide on membership should "five economic tests" be met.

In 2007 the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, pledged to hold a public referendum based on certain tests he set as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Public opinion polls have shown that a majority of Britons have been opposed to joining the single currency for some considerable time, and this position has hardened further in the last few years.

Within the United Kingdom, England has the largest constituent economy measured by gross domestic product (GDP) according to the figures provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for the year 2022, whilst Northern Ireland has the smallest, which is also in line with their respective population sizes.

[236] Excluding the effects of North Sea oil and gas (which is classified in official statistics as extra-regio), England has the highest gross value added (GVA) and Wales the lowest of the UK's countries.

On 16 July 2020, the government of UK affirmed that businesses across the United Kingdom, after the transition period ends, will continue to enjoy internal trade and jobs would remain protected against uncertain environment .

From 1 January 2021, the powers which were previously exercised at an EU level in at least 70 policy areas were to directly transfer to the devolved administrations in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast for the first time.

According to the Review, without action, the overall costs of climate change will be equivalent to losing at least 5% of global gross domestic product (GDP) each year, now and forever.