Monday, 11 November 2019

UK Economy: 13 Quarters of Growth Since EU Referendum

The UK has once again defied the expectations of economists, enjoying the 13th quarter of growth since the 2016 Brexit referendum.

KURT ZINDULKA and OLIVER JJ LANE12 Nov 2019, 2:32 AM PST

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson (L) gestures besides Tayto Chairman Stephen Hutchinson (R) during a general election campaign visit to the Tayto Castle crisp factory in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, on November 7, 2019. - Britain's two main parties promised billions of pounds of investment for hospitals, schools and infrastructure …

The United Kingdom has once again defied the expectations of economists and project fear naysayers, enjoying the 13th quarter of growth since the 2016 Brexit referendum, outperforming Germany, and the Eurozone as a whole for much of the past two years.

The UK economy grew by 0.3 per cent in the third quarter of this year, meaning the country has enjoyed growth in 13 of 14 economic reporting quarters since the 2016 Brexit referendum, reports analysis in The Telegraph.
The new economic figures also take some wind out of the sails of a key Remainer argument, the claim that the economy is 3 per cent smaller than it would have been without the Brexit vote.
In his analysis of the latest economic good news, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard said: “Exaggerated claims by the anti-Brexit movement are part of an ideological battle within the UK and across the European political landscape. They are intended to shape opinion and change policy. They matter. They must, therefore, be confronted and debunked.” 
 He noted that since the EU referendum the UK has an accumulated growth of 4.9 per cent, compared to 4.7 in Germany and Belgium over the same time period. He also pointed out that the United Kingdom has outgrown the Eurozone over the past 7 quarters, with the UK growing by 2.2 per cent compared to 2 per cent growth in the Eurozone.
While the analysis conceded there could be an economic hit if the country ever did leave the European Union while the new realities of international trade settle in, Pritchard-Evans said it was a falsehood pushed by anti-Brexit activists to claim any had already taken place. Remain campaigners have persistently claimed that Britian needs to remain inside the European Union to perform well — just as a previous generation of campaigners before them through the 1990s into the 2000s claimed Britain needed to abandon the pound sterling and be a member of the Euro single currency to be a success.
Yet both claims have been proven false, not least by the United Kingdom’s persistent outperforming of major Eurozone economies including Euro currency members Germany and Italy. Germany’s slowing economic outlook, including its descent into what economists call a ‘technical recession‘ in past months, falling business confidence, and industrial orders have all come despite its membership of the European Union.
Indeed, if Germany’s economy contracts again in figures expected later this week, it will have entered a full-blown recession.
The good economic news came as Conservatives derided Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party for their exorbitant spending promises. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid, said last week that if elected the Labour Party’s spending plans would plunge the UK into an economic crisis ‘within months’.
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