Economy of the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has the fourth largest economy in the world, the second largest in Europe, and is a member of the European Union. Its capital, London, is the largest financial center in the world.

The UK economy is one of the strongest in Europe; inflation, interest rates, and unemployment remain low. Growth is now at 3.0% per annum, which is higher than that of France, Germany and many other European countries.

The UK has large coal, natural gas, and oil reserves; primary energy production accounts for 10% of GDP, one of the highest shares of any industrial nation.

Due to the North Sea oil during the 1990s the UK became a net hydrocarbon exporter and the second largest producer of oil in Western Europe after Norway. Around about 80% of the UK electricity is currently generated from fossil fuels, nuclear power. The UK is the world’s 8th greatest producer of carbon dioxide emissions, producing around 2.3% of the total generated from fossil fuels.

Service industries, particularly banking, insurance, and business services, account for the largest proportion of GDP and employ around 70% of the working population.

Manufacturing continues to decline in importance. The UK was left with a very small domestic manufacturing sector. However British companies world wide continued to be present in the sector through foreign investment or through the closure and movement of factories to Eastern Europe and the Far East in search of lower costs.

Tourism is the 6th largest industry in the UK, contributing 76 billion pounds to the economy. It employs 1,800,000 full - time equivalent people – 6.1% of the working population.

Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanised, and efficient by European standards, producing about 60% of food needs with only 1% of the labour force. It contributes around 2% of GDP. Around two thirds of production is devoted to livestock, one third to crops. The main crops that are grown are wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, sugar beets, fruits and vegetables. The livestock that is raised is cattle and sheep. The GDP from the farming sector is argued by some politicians to be a small return on the subsidies given.

Задание 8. Определите, является ли утверждение истинным или ложным (True /False). Вслучаеложногоутверждениядайтеправильныйответ.

1. Economic growth of the UK is lower than that of France and Germany.

2. Unemployment rate is high in the UK.

3. Seventy percent of the population work in the service industry.

4. The UK has large oil reserves due to the North Sea oil.

5. Agriculture contributes only one percent of the Gross Domestic Product of the UK.

Задание 9. Прочитайте и письменно переведите текст.

Monopoly

Monopoly is a market structure with only a single seller of a commodity or service dealing with a large number of buyers. When a single seller faces a single buyer, that situation is known as bilateral monopoly.

The most important features of market structure are those which influence the nature of competition and price determination. The key element in this segment of market organization is the degree of seller concentration, or the number and size distributions of the sellers. There is monopoly when there is only one seller in an industry, and there is competition when there are many sellers in an industry. In cases of an intermediate number of sellers, that is, something between monopoly and competition, there can be two sellers (duopoly), a few sellers (oligopoly), or many sellers (atomistic competition).

Today the term monopoly is usually extended to include any group of firms which act together to fix prices or levels of production. Complete control of all output is not necessary to exercise monopoly power. Any combination of firms which controls at least 80 percent of an industry’s production can dictate the prices of the remaining 20 percent.

Aside from private monopolies, there are public monopolies. One example of a public monopoly in the United States is the nonprofit postal service. There is also the «natural» monopoly, which exists when it is more efficient, technically, to have a single seller.

Although the precise definition of monopoly – a market structure with only a single seller of a commodity or service – cannot be applied directly to a labor union because a union is not a seller of services, labor unions have monopolistic characteristics. For example, when a union concludes a wage settlement which sets wage rates at a level higher than that acceptable to unorganized workers, the union clearly contributes to monopolistic wage results. In effect, the price of labor (wages) is set without regard to the available supply of labor.

Задание 10. Найдите в тексте эквиваленты следующих слов и словосочетаний:

двусторонняя монополия, естественная монополия, степень, конкуренция, товар, услуга, устанавливать цены, профсоюз, некоммерческий, заключать, объем производства.

Задание 11. Ответьте письменно на вопросы к тексту (дайте полные ответы).

1. What is a monopoly, duopoly, oligopoly, atomistic competition?

2. What is a bilateral monopoly?

3. Is full control necessary for the monopoly?

4. What is an example of a public monopoly?

5. What is a “natural” monopoly?