According to a survey by the British Chambers of Commerce, investment and recruitment would be cut in the event of ‘no deal’ Brexit. The survey found that:, 21% of businesses will cut investment, 20% will move part of all of their business to EU, 18% will cut recruitment. Also, 62% of businesses still haven’t completed a Brexit risk assessment.
Adam Marshall, Director General of BCC, warned that “our evidence is clear – failure to reach a political agreement would have real-world consequences, with significant decreases in both investment and recruitment. Larger firms and those active in international trade would suffer the most from a disorderly and sudden exit from the EU, but there will be impacts across the board.” And, he added “most concerning of all, a materially significant number of businesses are considering moving part or all of their operations to the EU in the event of ‘no deal'”.
Separately, UK Gfk consumer confidence dropped -2 to -9 in September. Joe Staton, Client Strategy Director at GfK, noted “when respondents talk about their personal finances, the scores are still positive. But for the general economy, they can only reflect on the obvious uncertainty surrounding Brexit.”