Doing Business in United Kingdom

Published in July 2017

England, Scotland and Wales (Great Britain) together with Northern Ireland comprise the United Kingdom (UK).

The UK's economy is the fifth largest economy in the world and the second largest in the European Union (EU). The country is a globally important influencer, being one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, a founding member of NATO and of the Commonwealth, and a member of the G7 and G20 economic forums. The country pursues a global approach to foreign policy. The UK held a referendum on its continued membership of the EU in June 2106, following which on 29 March 2017 it notified the European Council of its intention to withdraw.

The UK had an estimated 65.11 million people in 2016, with $2.79 trillion GDP (2016) and growth of 1.8%. The inflation rate is currently around 2.7% and nominal GDP per capita is $43,902 (2016 est.). The currency is the Great Britain Pound, GBP.

In 2015 the United Kingdom was the 9th largest export economy in the world and the 11th most complex economy according to the Economic Complexity Index (ECI). The top UK exports in 2015 were gold, cars, packaged medicines, gas turbines and refined petroleum.

The UK is the largest market in the world for U.S. service exports. Major categories of US exports to the UK are aerospace products, agricultural products, biomass, cyber security, medical equipment, new build civil nuclear, certain consumer goods such as pet products, smart grids, sustainable construction, travel and tourism. The proposed US-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has the potential to cut tariffs and address market barriers, thus creating additional opportunities for US-UK trade.

This portal incorporates live data feeds from:

• The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
• The World Bank
• The observatory of Economic Complexity

The intention is to provide access to live information extracted from the regularly refreshed databases maintained by these organisations.