British Chamber of Commerce Downgrades UK’s Growth Forecast

Just days after the U.K.’s trade secretary branded the country “too lazy and too fat,” Britain’s leading business body has downgraded its U.K. growth forecasts.

The British Chambers of Commerce added insult on Monday to injury caused by the pro-Brexit Trade Secretary Liam Fox’s remarks over the weekend Saturday by predicting gross domestic product growth of 1.8 percent in 2016, 1 percent in 2017 and 1.8 percent in 2018.

The BCC’s forecasts come in the wake of the vote to leave the European Union (EU) and were lowered from previous robust estimates of 2.2 percent growth this year, 2.3 percent in 2017 and 2.4 percent in 2018.

In its first economic forecast since the EU referendum in June, the BCC said that weaker consumer spending and a large fall in investment were the main reasons for the downgrade. The U.K. has yet to formally trigger the exit process with the EU, causing uncertainty over the real effect that a Brexit will have on business confidence and consumption.

via CNBC

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.