Britain’s economic growth will slow next year falling behind even Italy as the country is hit by Brexit uncertainty, a major study today warns.
The UK economy will limp on at a sluggish pace of just one per cent next year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has predicted.
This would be the slowest of all the G7 countries which includes the US, Japan, Canada, France, Germany and even Italy.
But several Tory MPs said the report is just another example of ‘project gloom’ and that Brexit will provide new opportunities to boost the British economy.
The OECD has predicted the British economy will only grow by 1% next year – the slowest out of all of the G7 countries
The major new report predicts that Britain’s economic growth will lag behind Italy and France. It blames the sluggish growth on the uncertainty surrounding Brexit negotiations
The report, published today, found that UK is predicted to grow by 1 per cent next year – far slower than last year’s 1.8 per cent or the 1.6 per cent it is expected to grow this year.
If the prediction is proved correct, the UK will have the slowest economic growth out of all of the G7 countries – beaten into last place by Italy and Japan who are both predicted to grow by 1.2 per cent.
While France is also expected to grow at a faster pace than the UK at 1.6 percent, while Germany’s economy is predicted to expand by 2.1 per cent.
The US and Canada are predicted to grow at the fastest pace in the G7 at 2.4 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively.
The report blamed the uncertainty surrounding Brexit for its gloomy predictions for the British economy.
It said: ‘In the United Kingdom, the previously identified growth slowdown is expected to continue through 2018, while uncertainty remains over the outcome of negotiations around the decision to leave the European Union.
‘The unemployment rate has fallen to below 4.5 per cent, but weak productivity and real wage growth persist.’
However, several politicians warned that the figures cannot be trusted as they are by the same forecasters who wrongly predicted the UK would be battered if we voted for Brexit.
Peter Bone, Tory MP for Wellingborough, told the Mail Online: ‘The problem with these forecasts is that they are the same forecasters that said the economy would crash after the EU referendum – that we would have unemployment up, we would have interest rates up and we would have a massive decline in trade.
‘But the total reverse happened.
Tory MPs Jacob Rees-Mogg (pictured left) and Peter Bone (pictured right) both said the report is just another example of economic scaremongering by the establishment and said Brexit will give a boost to the British economy
‘Unemployment rates are down, employment rates are up, and interest rates have stayed low. We have seen a very positive economy.
‘I don’t think we should actually take any notice of these forecasts.’
He predicted that Brexit will give the British economy a boost rather than deal it a blow.
He said: ‘When we come out of the EU the economy is going to get better and better, especially as we are going to do new trade deals with the rest of the world.
‘I think the gloomy forecasts are base more on what many people would like to happen rather than what is actually going to happen.’
Mr Bone said Brexit created ‘great’ new opportunities for UK trade to boom and that forecasters should stop ‘talking down the British economy’.
He said: ‘We should ignore this project gloom forecasts as they have been proven wrong in the past and I don’t see why they wont be proven wrong again.’
Jacob Rees Mogg, Tory MP for North East Somerset, told the Mail Online: ‘The international establishment which provided erroneous forecasts last year is desperate to prove itself right.
‘Good news is always in spite of Brexit while bad news is caused by Brexit.
‘In truth the economy is doing well and unemployment is low but all economies slow eventually as part of a natural cycle.’