02177cas a2200241 a 4500 AALejournalIMF018259 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d 5.00 USD 9781484341759 1934-7685 BD-DhAAL BD-DhAAL International Monetary Fund. European Dept. United Kingdom : Selected Issues. Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2018. 1 online resource (45 pages) IMF Staff Country Reports <strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students This Selected Issues paper on the United Kingdom finds that the main factors behind the slowdown include weak productivity growth, labor market slack, and low inflation. Recent labor market developments in the United Kingdom appear to point to disconnect between unemployment and wages. Although the unemployment rate has fallen to a 40-year low, wage growth continues to growth at a subdued pace. The analysis in this paper suggests that this puzzle is explained by persistent weak productivity growth and well-anchored inflation expectations, as well as by greater effective labor market slack than suggested by the headline unemployment rate. Broader measures of underemployment-accounting for involuntary part-time unemployment, inactive and self-employed people seeking regular jobs-suggest that slack in the labor market was higher than implied by the unemployment rate in recent years. Persistent tightness of the labor market should prompt some firming of wage growth in the coming year, everything else equal. A mild increase in unit labor costs would help bring domestically generated inflation in line with the inflation target. Mode of access: Internet IMF Staff Country Reports; Country Report ; No. 2018/043 Full text available on IMF http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/002/2018/043/002.2018.issue-043-en.xml IMF e-Library