Using the data and your economic knowledge, assess the importance of an increase in exports for achieving an improvement in the performance of the UK economy. (25 marks)
To assess the impact of an increase in exports for achieving an improvement in the performance of the UK economy, we must first define the macroeconomic indicators, which are factors the government use in assessing the performance of the current economy. These are, prices and inflation, employment and unemployment, GDP and economic growth, and the current account of the balance of payments, which is to say, the balance between imports and exports. However, because of the recent economic crisis, the state of government finances has also become a key indicator of performance. Furthermore, we are likely to consider the competitiveness of exports in this situation. Exports play an important role in the UK economy, it influences the level of economic growth, employment, and the balance of payments. Exports of goods and services, in 2011, accounted for large percentage of the UK’s GDP, which shows how an increase in exports would greatly improve the performance of the UK economy.
Firstly, to be able to assess the importance of an increase in exports for an improvement in the performance of the economy, we must first look at the statistics of the UK economy in the peak of the recession in 2009. In terms of unemployment, which, although self explanatory, means the amount of people out of work who are also actively looking for work and available to begin working immediately, which peaked at 2.47 million in June and July of 2009. High unemployment obviously is negative towards the economy since these unemployed people are basically unused resources that could be working and earning money and contributing towards the economy. Hence, due to this unemployment there is always the potential for more income to enter the economic cycle which would benefit the economy, but cannot due to