With Increased Pessimism Over UK Prospects, Is It Time To Think Again About The Costs Of Brexit?

The Bank of England in its latest forecasts that accompanied the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) decision to raise interest rates by a further quarter of a per cent in early May made grim reading, as was well documented by Steve McCabe in an earlier BCU blog. But are we paying enough attention to the causes? Yes, energy prices are an issue that all countries have to deal with. And yes, food price rises are a problem worldwide. But while inflation is thought to be near to peaking across the Eurozone and in the US, price pressures in the UK are instead expected to intensify. And the slowdown in growth that is expected in the next few months, culminating in an overall fall in GDP next year, is not in line with general trends elsewhere