Weak growth caps a dismal decade since financial crisis, says TUC

Following today’s (Friday) publication of the latest quarterly GDP figures, which complete a decade of data since the since the start of the financial crisis in 2008, the TUC is publishing analysis to show how the economy has fared over the last decade.

While growth has increased from 0.2% in the first quarter to 0.4% for the second quarter of 2018, the TUC is concerned that there is little evidence that the economy is yet returning to anything like the long-run growth trend.

The TUC’s analysis finds that, in the decade since the financial crisis started in the second quarter of 2008, growth per head of the population has been much weaker than any of the preceding ten-year periods.

For the ten years from Q2 2008 to Q2 2018, average annual growth per head was just 0.4%. For the preceding ten-year periods, average annual growth per head was typically around 2% or higher.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“The latest figures cap a dismal decade for the economy. But we should not accept weak growth as the new normal – it’s the result of bad management of the economy. There has been too little investment and a failure to focus on getting wages rising.

“If we want a stronger decade ahead, the UK must catch up with the levels investment we see in other OECD nations. And the government must put action to get wages rising at the heart of its plans.”