With uncertainty about Brexit and utter confusion on no-deal Brexit by PM Boris Johnson antics, United Kingdom falls to bottom of G7 growth table. The cumulative effect has led to Toyota car manufacturer to pause car production in UK, house price growth halted in August, business confidence is low and there is steep fall in lending to businesses and it is the ‘worst decline in the car industry since 2001.
All other advance economies performed better than Britain in the second quarter of 2019. Canada topped the G7 with strong growth of 0.9% in the second quarter. The US and Japan both posted solid, if unspectacular, growth of 0.5% and 0.4% respectively. Back in 2015, the then chancellor George Osborne proudly declared that Britain was “growing faster than any other major advanced economy”, after the UK outpaced the rest of the G7 in 2014. The present chancellor, Sajid Javid, cannot make such a boast when he presents the government spending review next week.
The UK’s second-quarter contraction was partly caused by stockpiling in the run-up to the original Brexit deadline at the end of March. This has dragged economic down. The solution for the down turn of the economy is the unresolved and lingering issue of no-deal Brexit. No one knows whether we are coming or going. It is time to take the bull by its horn and sort it before 31 October, otherwise the country will face mayhem.
Baldev Sharma
Rayners Lane, Harrow
