UK economy in post-Brexit slowdown, says think-tank

The British economy is showing signs of further slowdown in the wake of the Brexit vote, a report by an influential think-tank has shown.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) estimates that gross domestic product (GDP) output grew by 0.3% in the three months to August.

That compares with GDP growth of 0.4% in the three months to July.

The chance of a technical recession before the end of 2017 "remains significantly elevated", the report said.

The probability of recession, indicated by two consecutive quarters of negative growth, currently stands at 50%, according to NIESR.

A recent blog post by the think-thank said the UK's annual growth rate is expected to fall to 1% in 2017 from 1.7% this year.

Rebecca Piggott, research fellow at NIESR, said: "The evidence on the current state of the economy post-referendum is limited, but on balance these data suggest that the UK economy is in the midst of a slowdown."

Advertisement