Brexit sees pound slump against euro

● Sterling at eight year low amid uncertainty and boost to eurozone

Sterling has slumped to an eight-year low against the euro, as Brexit uncertainty and strong economic data from the eurozone hit the UK currency.

The pound was down 0.5 per cent to 1.083 versus the euro as the London market closed, hitting its lowest level since October 2009.

A rosy update on the eurozone economy gave the euro a leg-up against its peers, with PMI figures showing manufacturing export orders climbed at their fastest pace for six-and-a-half years.

The pound was also struggling against the US dollar, down 0.2 per cent at 1.278.

Despite sterling’s woes, a group of Brexit-backing economists today forecast Britain’s economy will boom once the country is freed from the “destructive cack-handed” Brussels decision-making that has held back growth.

Introducing the euro was an “unmitigated disaster” but the European Union’s poor economic performance predates the creation of the single currency, the 16-strong Economists for Free Trade claimed.

It said “barmy” plans for harmonisation, integration and Europeanisation meant the bloc had a dire record against emerging markets as well as the United States, Canada and Australia.

But campaigners against a hard Brexit said there were “members of the Flat Earth Society with more credibility” than the group of economists.

Horse-trading of individual country interests, misuse of EU funds and an “excessive regulatory zeal” have all hindered growth, according to Economists for Free Trade’s latest Brexit paper.

Author Roger Bootle, chairman of consultancy Capital Economics, said: “While the leaders of the rapidly growing countries of Asia were busy- ing themselves with the fundamentals of economic growth, in Europe their equivalents were obsessed with unnecessary and damaging integrations.

“Unshackled from the EU and its destructive policies, there is every chance that the UK will enjoy a faster rate of economic growth - faster than it enjoyed in the past while a member, and faster than the remaining members in the future.”

Mr Bootle, who has also advised the Commons Treasury select committee, said the benefits of the single market had been “greatly oversold”.

“The downside to the single market is that you have to apply all its rules and regulations throughout the whole economy,” he said.