Economics Department

The four policy objectives

a) Inflation

(i) What is meant by inflation?

(ii) How is it measured in the UK?

(iii) What is happening to UK prices over the period shown?

(iv) What is the significance of the chart for the UK economy?

b) Unemployment

(v) What is the difference between the claimant count measure and the ILO definition of unemployment? Which is used in the UK?

(vi) Describe the trend in unemployment shown in the chart.

(vii) What is the most likely explanation for the trend of unemployment between 1990 and 1993?

(viii) How has the composition of unemployment likely to have changed between 1993 and 2002?

c) Economic Growth

(ix) How is economic growth measured in the UK?

(x) Why would some economists have problems with this method of measurement?

(xi) Describe the UK's growth record between 1990 and 2000.

(xii) Economic growth leads to higher living standards. Discuss.

d) The current account of the balance of payments

(xiii) What is meant by the current account of the balance of payments?

(xiv) What is the most likely reason for the improvement in the current account balance between 1989 and 1991?

(xv) Analyse factors which might explain the trend in the current account of the balance of payments between 1997 and 2000.