Lately there has been much discussion in the pages of the FT on how to increase Britain’s low economic growth. The answer lies in one of your articles.
In “The financialisation of US industry” (The Big Read, February 4), you report that Honeywell increased spending on research and development from 3.3 per cent of sales in 2003 to 5.5 per cent in 2016, with stellar results.
Bühler, the Swiss technology group, spends between 4 per cent and 5 per cent of sales on R&D every year, again with similar outcomes. The US spends about 3.4 per cent of national economic output on R&D; Switzerland 3.5 per cent; Britain 2.77 per cent.
Any economist will tell you the key to raising productivity is innovation.
Britain is only unexceptional in this regard, that it has at least four universities that are among the best in the world. The UK has the quality. It is only lacking in quantity. This matters.
Néstor Enrique Cruz
Attorney, Falls Church, VA, US
