Roundup: Britain's economy affected by historic events, say statistics experts

Historic events in Britain left their mark on the country's economy, a study by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed on Friday.

ONS studied landmark events to gauge what impact they had on Britain's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

An ONS spokesman said: "Events in recent history can be associated with having had an impact on British economy, including the London 2012 Olympics. The event was not only a medal-winning success for Britain."

"During 2012, when the London Olympics and Paralympics took place, economic growth was 1.1 percent in July to September of 2012, the highest growth for nearly seven years."

Although tourism dropped slightly, spending rose significantly for visitors to Britain. Output increased by 1.5 percent just in July 2012 while sales of Olympics tickets added 722 million U.S. dollars, or 0.1 percent of GDP, to the economy and contributed 0.2 percentage points to economic growth.

The Global financial crisis of 2008 saw the number of people in Britain finding it difficult to get by financially. GDP fell by 6.3 percent and it took more than five years for GDP to recover, and nearly eight years for GDP per head to recover.

More than 310,000 people lost their jobs as redundancy levels rose by 160 percent, with the number claiming unemployment pay at its highest level in over 12 years.

The 9/11 attacks in the United States and a foot and mouth epidemic affecting livestock in farms across Britain in 2001 impacted on the country's economy.

The terrorist attacks disrupted Britain-U.S. trading, while trade and relations with areas in the middle east became more cautious. Stock markets plummeted and aviation was affected.

The mass outbreak of foot and mouth disease left more than six million cows and sheep dead and cost the farming industry more than 10 billion U.S. dollars, or around 0.2 percent of GDP.

Black Wednesday left its mark when the British government withdrew the pound from the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) in September 1992, after attempts to prop up its value failed. Billions of dollars were wiped off the stock market.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew after this point with Britain experiencing almost 16 consecutive years of economic growth, the longest continued expansion on record. The British Treasury estimated that Black Wednesday cost 4.1 billion U.S. dollars.

The years 1979 to 1981, a period of increasing inequality and high inflation, saw unemployment at a 50-year high. Britain witnessed some of the worse riots ever seen, particularly in London's Brixton and Toxteth, Liverpool. There were mass strikes with inflation reaching double figures. GDP was hit by unemployment as well as low spending, due to high prices and a lack of income. A record loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) helped the British government tackle high debt.

Further back, an economic downturn in the 1970s saw higher inflation lined to an oil crisis. Production stalled due to weak trade and a miner's strike, leading to a three-day working week to save the electricity. It took 3.5 years for GDP to recover from the downturn. Endit