Brexit should have helped us to understand our economic status – instead, divisive politics inflated it

The real data is revealed by looking at things in real terms, what economists call purchasing power parity

Monday 10 December 2018 01:49 GMT
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One of the most tired (to use a euphemism) of all the factoids that get dropped casually into public debates is that the UK is the fifth largest economy in the world.

This is usually mentioned by hard Brexiteers who want to make Britain sound big and important.

A variation is that the UK is the fifth richest economy in the world, usually from folks on the left who want more public spending.

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