F&I Management & Training

OSBORNE WARNS OVER EU VOTE FALLOUT

With the UK’s EU referendum vote on Thursday, Reuters reports that Chancellor George Osborne has said he believes that a ‘leave’ vote could prove more damaging to the nation’s economy than predicted by current government forecasts. In a television interview on Sunday, Osborne referenced an existing estimate of a five to six percent drop in GDP and said “it's possible that it could be quite a lot worse than that.”

The Chancellor was referring to a Treasury estimate in May that expected a vote to leave would see the UK’s economy shrink by six percent within two years of the referendum, while inflation would rise sharply and house prices would suffer an 18 percent drop in value. With an emphasis on consumer-related issues, Osborne went on to say: “People are doing this already. They are not buying houses, they are not buying cars. They are delaying investment. This is before the vote. This is a taste of things to come.”

The IMF had already issued a similar warning, claiming Brexit is the "largest near-term risk" to the UK economy. However, economists for the Leave camp have said the consensus that a UK exit would be bad for the economy was "based on flawed EU-centric models".

DATED: 20.06.16

FEED: ARN