UK GDP since 1948

5:20 pm in business, credit crunch by wbhawkins

: Image via Wikipedia

Uncannily, I wrote an earlier post based upon the blog of Umair Haque about how we think about the economy than along comes an article in The Guardian illustrating how we have always measured the economy – GDP. It’s still an interesting set of figures presented in a chart to show just how deeply in the mire we are.

Figures and charts can often put into context what headlines cannot. We really are in the mire, but it has been worse. Not that that is much comfort if you have lost your job or your business.

This article was written by Simon Rogers, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 27th July 2010 15.25 UTC

The Office of National Statistics announced on Friday that GDP increased by 1.1% in the second quarter of 2010, a much steeper rise than expected.

The announcement follows on from newly revised GDP figures which showed the recession was more severe than first thought. The ONS data revealed that the negative growth experienced in 2008-09 was the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, with a decline in GDP of 6.4% rather than 6.2%.

The data below shows what GDP is in actual cash, ie what it was that year not adjusted for inflation. We’ve also added in total inflation-adjusted figures and per capita inflation adjusted figures. Download the spreadsheet to see more data by year or by quarter. A repeated decline in GDP usually means recession.

As several of our posters below have pointed out, there’s more to life than GDP – but here are the latest figures.