Chart of the day: The Great Recession

By Alex Hern Published 26 April 2012

This recession is significantly longer than, and almost as deep as, the one affecting Britain the 1930s.

But looking at GDP growth hides the fact that some aspects of it are even worse:

Nominally positive growth below the rate of population growth results in GDP per capita contracting. Even if we find out, after the final GDP figures come out in two months, that we weren't in a national recession, we've been in a per capita recession for a while. And under OBR and ONS predictions for the rate of GDP and population growth, it won't be until 2016 that GDP per capita is back to where it was in 2007. That isn't a lost year; it's a lost decade.

And even talk of a lost decade is understating the problem. Pay rises have been near at or below inflation for so long that the average weekly wage now is worth the same as it was in September of 2002 – and because price inflation remains higher than wage inflation, this is getting worse, not better. In terms of what you can buy for your wage, we've already lost a decade. The trick will be to not lose two.

View the discussion thread.

4 comments

Wed, 2012-06-13 14:45 — Andrew Chapman (not verified)

This is quite a good article. Many new questions emerge to the surface, all you need do is to read further information about the issues. Only then one can form a final view on a particular subject. Otherwise everything is seen only in the dimension of how to cum more black and white. The natural logic of pr agentura evaluating things before catering they were properly cognitively processed is a horrible mistake, made by those less intelligent. People should not throw away their common ubytovanie na slovensku sense easily. Anything and everything deserves appropriate time for making judgements.

Thu, 2012-05-24 09:31 — Blackiee HOward (not verified)

Even if we find out, after the final GDP figures come out in two months, that we weren't in a national recession, we've been in a per slovakia capita recession for a while. And under OBR and ONS predictions for the rate of cum more GDP and population growth, it won't be until 2016 catering that GDP per capita is back to where it was in 2007.