Which country benefits most from economic growth? UK ranks below Ukraine and Russia
Economic growth is generally considered a positive thing for the people living in that country – it brings jobs, opportunities and usually a higher standard of living.
But how much that growth translates into what we can actually experience as improved level of well-being varies from country to country, and it turns out the UK is pretty bad at it.
The Boston Consulting Group has just released its assessment on sustainable economic development, which gives each country in Europe a figure (it calls it a "growth-to-wellbeing coefficient") based on how much residents feel the benefits of an expanding economy.
The better it is at converting growth into wellbeing, the higher the number.
At the very top of the list is Poland with a coefficient of 1.55, with many of the other Eastern European countries dominating the top of the list, such as Croatia, Bosnia, Albania and Ukraine. Germany comes in fifth place with a coefficient of 1.34.
Greece and Cyprus, which have had strict austerity measures imposed on them, come at the very bottom with coefficients of 0.7 and 073, respectively. Surprisingly, many of the Scandinavian countries also come low down, such as Sweden and Denmark.
The UK also falls solidly below the European average of 1.07 with a score of 0.99, which means Britons may not be feeling as much benefit as some from expansion.
Last year, IMF figures showed that the UK had the fastest growing advanced economy in the world, ahead of both the US and Germany.
