Brexit worries likely to trigger a blue winter in Britain

LONDON The uncertainty over Brexit hobbling the British economy is set to go on for longer than expected, leaving companies and households in a limbo.

When Britain triggered the twoyear timetable to leave the European Union, October’s summit of EU leaders was supposed to be the moment a Brexit deal would be agreed on to give parliaments the time to pass it into law ahead of March’s departure.

A deal at Wednesday’s summit would have lifted some of the pall that’s hung over the British economy since the Brexit vote of June 2016. Instead, British Prime Minister Theresa May wasn’t able to secure an agreement and EU leaders cancelled a Brexit summit in November. That suggests there won’t be any deal until December — at the earliest.

The worry is Britain could crash out without a pact on future relations with the EU or without even a transition period to ease its exit — what has become known as a “hard Brexit.” Tariffs would be placed on exports, border checks would be reinstalled, and restrictions could hit travellers and workers. Some are warning of shortages in markets like medicines and even sperm donations.

Consumers have become cautious, cutting down on spending as a fall in the pound after the Brexit vote pushed up prices for imports. From being the fastestgrowing Group of Seven industrial economy prior to the Brexit vote, Britain is now one of the slowest.

In a survey of 2,530 small and medium-sized companies conducted in August, the BCC found that 49 per cent of firms have Brexit “front of mind” when deciding whether to trade internationally and that highlights “the economic cost of the persistent lack of political clarity.”