Britain may face S&P downgrade

Standard & Poor’s warned that it may downgrade its credit rating on Britain sometime in the next two years after the government’s decision to hold a referendum on the country’s membership in the European Union.

The referendum, due before the end of 2017, “represents a risk to growth prospects for Britain’s financial services and export sectors, as well as the wider economy,” the agency said.

It also said that economic policymaking “could be at risk of being more exposed to party politics than we had previously anticipated, similar to the situation in the U.S. when we lowered that sovereign rating in 2011.”