UK Needs More Creativity for a More Sustainable Economic Growth

The UK economy is doing better, but the government may still need to do more in order to create a more sustainable economic growth.

According to the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, the UK economy is finally on its way to recovery, thanks to the government''s austerity and quantitative easing programmes. However, there are still some pertinent factors that may still need to be addressed.

Positive news seem to be persisting in the UK since the Office for National Statistics just released information a few days ago stating that they have just revised their official data. According to the ONS, UK''s economic growth had risen not by 0.6% but by 0.7%. The initial figure was released back in July but was recently revised due to some adjustments made based on the estimated output of various industries, particularly that of the export industry.

This latest data clearly shows that the UK economy is finally moving towards recovery after almost half a decade of being in stasis. Moreover, data also shows that the agriculture, construction, industry and services sectors have shown clear progress in the second quarter.

According to Labour MP for Oldham West and Royton Michael Meacher, the UK economy still needs to implement more changes for a more sustainable growth. He cautioned that British banks have not changed and still invest in foreign trading, financial derivatives, and properties instead of investing in UK industries. Moreover, in the previous year, the country had more imported than exported products. In fact, there were more than GBP106 billion worth of imported goods than the country was able to export. In addition to that, Meacher believes that Osborne''s latest "Help to Buy" scheme may only create an unstable housing bubble.

The said scheme is a government programme that allows UK citizens to buy and own homes by giving them the option to borrow 20% of a property''s cash value from the government. Meacher further mentioned that among the best ways for the country to get a more sustainable economic growth is not to increase consumer spending but to inject more money into industrial investments. He said that state-owned members of the Big Four, namely RBS and Lloyds, could be made to invest more in creating more jobs and supporting British industries, particularly in construction, energy and IT industries. He added that the government could also impose a higher tax rate for the wealthy Brits who gained more wealth in the last four years.

Despite its recent progress, the UK''s gross domestic product is still 3.5% short of its level before the financial crisis of 2008. Furthermore, wages of 99% of the working class is still 5.5% below its average, and about 2.5 million people are still unemployed.

Meanwhile, other countries, which have likewise been struggling to get back on its feet due to the same financial meltdown, have managed to actually surpass their pre-crash standing, with Canada managing to reach above 6%, the US at 4%, and Germany at 2%.

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