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The United Kingdom, a leading trading power and financial centre, has the fourth largest economy in the world, the second largest in Europe, and is a member of the European Union. Its capital, London, is the largest financial centre in the world. The British economy is also characterized as an Anglo-Saxon economy. It is made up of (in order of how much they contribute), the economies of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Since the 1980s, many state enterprises that were nationalized in the 1940s have been privatized. GDP growth slipped in 2001–2002 as the global downturn, the high price of the Pound Sterling, and the bursting of the " new economy" bubble hurt manufacturing and exports. However the UK economy is one of the strongest of the larger European Union economies; inflation, interest rates, and unemployment remain low. GDP growth in 2004 was over 3.0% per annum, which was higher than that of France, Germany and many other European countries. The GDP grew by 0.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2005.
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