Over this time, the U.K. has actually underperformed the euro zone as a whole and the economy is now expected to shrink by 0.1% this year.
Yet the evidence suggests that, unlike the euro-zone periphery, the U.K. is struggling to rebalance.
Glaxo has been funneling cash back to the U.K. daily from banks in euro-zone countries as part of its strategy to reduce exposure to risks of a possible breakdown of the European monetary system.
In Switzerland, which like the U.K. isn't part of the euro zone, the central bank has used the euro as its external reference point in its efforts to keep the Swiss franc's value stable.
Nor can Mr. Osborne blame the euro crisis for the U.K.'s predic-ament when several euro zone members are performing better.
The other group, which now sadly includes U.S. President Barack Obama and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, insists the euro zone should move to an immediate political and fiscal union.
What's more, members of the bank's Monetary Policy Committee have made it clear during the past couple of weeks that yet more bond-buying could be in the cards when the current round ends, especially if the euro-zone crisis keeps pressure on the U.K. economy.
The U.K. has avoided the misery suffered in parts of the euro zone, but five years into the crisis it is looking as though tough decisions are being avoided by a political elite happy to hide behind the convenient fiction that a slump caused by the biggest credit and housing bubble in the country's history is mainly cyclical.
So even if the euro zone's problems are resolved soon, the U.K.'s prospects aren't great.
The U.K. isn't a member of the 17-member euro zone and has been an attractive alternative for investors whenever worries about the currency bloc's finances flare up.
More recently, politicians have had to accept debt brakes and other devices to limit borrowing and many have submitted to external surveillance by independent monitors such as the U.K.'s Office for Budget Responsibility or, under the euro zone's Fiscal Pact, by the European Commission.
That is as true of the U.S., the U.K. and particularly Japan, as it is of most of the euro zone.
Further north, Britons watching the debacle in the euro zone are pressing their leaders for a vote on the U.K.'s future in the European Union.
Similarly, the pound has tumbled in recent weeks against the euro and dollar as the euro zone's debt crisis has subsided, laying bare the U.K. economy's stubborn problems and weakening sterling's appeal as a haven alternative to the euro.
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Meanwhile, the United Kingdom (U.K.), a member of the European Union but not of the euro-zone, has already reported that its economy has been negative for two straight quarters, officially in a recession.
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If the U.K. becomes desperate during its own financial crisis, it may bend to German wishes for a euro zone FTT.
Moody's cut its forecast for the U.K. economy, saying Britain's economic and fiscal outlook have weakened due to the euro-zone crisis, though it kept its negative outlook and triple-A credit rating on the country.
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