UK has highest GDP per capita rise in G7 since 1997

Green Politics

Britain had the highest per-capita rise in GDP in the G7 since Labour came to power. But critics are calling for an end to "unsustainable" growth.

As the economy emerged from recession, figures from the IMF – including data for 2009 – show that since 1997, Britain has had the highest per-capita rise in GDP in the G7. But critics are calling for an end to “unsustainable” growth.

As the chart below shows, Britain’s GDP per per capita rose 21 per cent since 1997, with GDP overall rising 28 per cent, behind only Canada (35 per cent) and the US (31 per cent).

The growth in GDP was responsible for creating millions of jobs, providing a better standard of living for a decade, and mending the broken public services infrastructure. Although some, including James Purnell, have pointed out that, “GDP had been artificially inflated by the housing and financial bubble.”

A new campaign by the New Economic Foundation is arguing that “indefinite global economic growth is unsustainable” while campaign group 38 degrees are calling for an end to the “fixation” with economic growth.

A new website and YouTube video, The Impossible Hamster, has been set up to promote the campaign.

Watch it:

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23 Responses to “UK has highest GDP per capita rise in G7 since 1997”

  1. Henry

    And if our GBP/capita hadn’t been so high, your Tory posters would no doubt be complaining that the Labour government damaged economic growth…

  2. Martin Johnston

    RT @leftfootfwd: UK has highest GDP per capita since 97 but critics call for end to "unsustainable growth" http://bit.ly/6nbyIm

  3. JamieSW

    RT @theneweconomics: RT @leftfootfwd Critics call for an end to "unsustainable growth" http://bit.ly/6nbyIm

  4. Claire Fair

    Will, I am not clear on which side of the fence you fall (or if are you sitting on it?!). Do you want to continue to protect per capita (sic) GDP incomes derived from the financial sector (AKA gambling incomes) from a which a tiny proportion of society benfits? How forward thinking do you/we want to be?

  5. Alfred T Mahan

    The USA’s GDP rose significantly because of Hurricane Katrina, but I doubt anyone would argue the country was better off having regular hurricane disasters. Since GDP includes all the government’s spending on the never-never, it would be amazing if GDP hadn’t risen significantly – but it’s a meaningless and misleading statistic in this context. Anyway, you admit this yourself when you quote James Purnell saying that GDP has been artificially inflated. I’d stick to the day job if I were you.

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