the 21st century the UK retains the ability to project significant power and influence around the world. Government involvement is primarily exercised by His Majesty's Treasury, headed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Since 1979, management of the economy has followed a broadly laissez-faire approach. The Bank of England is the UK's central bank, and since 1997 its Monetary Policy Committee has been responsible for setting interest rates, quantitative easing, and forward guidance. The currency of the UK is the pound sterling, which is the world's fourth-largest reserve currency after the United States dollar, the Euro and the Japanese yen. It is also one of the 10 most-valued currencies in the world. The UK is a founding member of the Commonwealth, the G7, the G20, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, NATO, the United Nations Security Council, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the United Nations. History 1945 to 1979 After the Second World War, a new Labour government fully nationalised the Bank of England, civil aviation, telephone networks, railways, gas, electricity, and the coal, iron and steel industries, affecting 2.3 million workers. Post-war, the United Kingdom enjoyed a long period without a major recession; there was a rapid growth in prosperity in the 1950s and 1960s, with unemployment staying low and not exceeding 3.5% until the early 1970s. The annual rate of growth between 1960 and 1973 averaged 2.9%, although this figure was far behind other European countries such as France, West Germany and Italy. Deindustrialisation meant the closure of operations in mining, heavy industry, and manufacturing, resulting in the loss of highly paid working-class jobs. The UK's share of manufacturing output had risen from 9.5% in 1830 during the Industrial Revolution to 22.9% in the 1870s. It fell to 13.6% by 1913, 10.7% by 1938, and 4.9% by 1973. Overseas competition, lack of innovation, trade unionism, the welfare state, loss of the British Empire, and cultural attitudes have all been put forward as explanations. It reached crisis point in the 1970s against the backdrop of a worldwide energy crisis, high inflation, and a dramatic influx of low-cost manufactured goods from Asia. During the 1973 oil crisis (which saw oil prices quadruple), the 1973–74 stock market crash, and the secondary banking crisis of 1973–75, the British economy