Britain’s productivity puzzle solved

When it comes to productivity growth, Britain has lagged behind most of the developed world. But that is slowly changing. Merryn Somerset Webb explains why.

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The UK lags behind most other developed countries in automated farm equipment
(Image credit: 2016 Kyodo News)

Why is it that UK productivity growth is so much lower than that of other developed nations? Most countries have lower than expected productivity and various explanations have been produced for this but the fact that the UK is performing uniquely badly is something no one seems to understand. It's a "puzzle." Or so we keep being told.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.