What are the comparative benefit

The idea of comparative benefit defines that a nation must specialise in the industries in which it has a comparative advantage. Comparative benefit is measured in terms of opportunity cost. Country with the least opportunity cost when producing a good holds a comparative advantage in that good.

In recent years it has become fashionable to claim that British economy is in decline and it needs to re-balance in order to compete with emerging BRIC economies. On coming to office in 2010, David Cameron and Nick Clegg said that UK was too dependent on its service sector economy but needed to rebuild its economy to be more like that of Germany that has a proud tradition of exporting high-quality capital and consumer goods across the world. In recent years Germany's economy has boomed as it has enjoyed strong balance of payments surpluses by selling its services and goods to the BRIC economies.