
THE UK ECONOMY: THE GAME IS UP!
14 January 2021 | by Peter Warburton
Over the next 4 years, the advancing impact of de-globalisation on the UK economy, and London in particular, will hit home and hit hard. Departure from the EU has introduced frictions that will discourage trade, deter foreign investment and diminish London’s market share in global financial services. In the face of a general disinterest in removing barriers to international trade, the UK will struggle to monetise its new-found freedoms outside the EU. While 2021 is still likely to feature an interval of economic euphoria, presuming that the vaccines get ahead of the virus, this will be cut short by the return of inflation and by the government’s attempt to collapse the sky-high budget deficit. It is quite conceivable that the UK economy will still be 5 per cent smaller at end-2024 than before the pandemic struck.