Britain’s economy has wobbled along since the financial crisis more than a decade ago, in 2008, with weak productivity and low pay. Recently, it lost its place as the world’s fifth-largest economy to India.
While the global economy faces a slowdown, Britain has many unique challenges. Brexit has erected barriers to Britain’s largest trading partner, the European Union, deterring business investment and breaking a connection to a large pool of workers. The overburdened National Health Service, pushed to the brink by the pandemic, has an immense backlog of patients needing care, keeping many of them out of work. And now inflation, running near a 40-year high, is squeezing household budgets.