‘UK counting cost of Brexit distraction’

BREXIT is distracting Britain’s government and businesses from the longer-term challenges of boosting productivity and living standards, Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane has said.

BoE Governor Mark Carney has previously said Britain’s economy has so far probably grown almost 2pc less than it would have done if voters had backed staying in the EU in June 2016’s referendum.

Haldane told a public forum in Bristol, southwest England, that Brexit preparations were delaying longer-term work on boosting Britain’s very weak rate of productivity growth that set in around the time of the 2008 financial crisis.

“Brexit has absorbed a lot of energy ... not just in government but among companies as well. That has probably come at some cost,” he said.

There has been a big rise this year in the number of people opting to start a career in the world of finance and investment. At a ceremony last week, 47 young people were conferred with their CFA charters by Chartered Financial Analysts Ireland, the Irish arm of the global CFA Institute. This is a big increase on the 35 who received their CFA charters in 2018 and brings the number of Irish CFA charterholders to more than 500. Pictured at the conferring are new CFA charterholders Cillian Hilliard, of Bettystown, Co Meath and Ana Ghita, from Romania, with NTMA chief executive Conor O’Kelly who gave the keynote address at the conferring ceremony.