BREXIT BRITAIN WILL BE ROBUST!
Bank boss: Walking away won’t harm us
BRITAIN will remain strong if we leave the EU without a deal, a senior Bank of England official said yesterday.
Deputy governor Ben Broadbent said the economy’s growth over the past year suggested the financial system would remain “robust” whatever the outcome of Brexit talks.
His remarks follow a series of Daily Express telephone surveys recording overwhelming support for the Government walking away from the negotiations. Mr
Broadbent told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the Bank was assuming there would be a smooth transition rather than a “no-deal outcome”.
But he added: “The Financial Policy Committee has modelled various aspects of what could happen without a deal.
“We think, and I think this is very important, that the core of the financial system – given how much capital has been added – would be robust to such an outcome.”
Last night another Bank official signalled that the City of London will remain a leading global financial centre after Brexit.
In a speech in the US, Sir John Cunliffe, deputy governor for financial stability, said: “Despite perceptions in some quarters to the contrary, the UK’s role as the leading international financial centre does not rest or depend exclusively on the EU single market in financial services. The UK has the largest asset management industry in the EU.
“But this is not built primarily on the management of the pool of European savings.
“Well over 50 per cent of the roughly 8.5trillion US dollar assets under management in the UK are pensions, insurance and investments of UK citizens. Another 20 per cent comes from the rest of the world beyond the EU.”
The officials’ remarks are likely to be seized upon by Brexit campaigners who want Theresa May to scrap negotiations with Brussels. A walkout has been backed by Daily Express readers in a series of phone polls.
In one survey in September last year, 99 per cent of callers agreed that Britain should quit without a deal.
In December last year, 96 per cent said they did not “trust” the EU to give us a fair deal on trade.
Mr Broadbent was speaking a day after the Bank of England upgraded its official growth forecast for the UK economy this year from 1.6 to 1.8 per cent.
New official data yesterday showed that demand for British goods and services from overseas soared in the year since Britain voted to quit the EU.
Exports rose 11.3 per cent to £617billion, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed.
International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox said: “Demand for British goods and services is higher than ever. These new figures are a testament to the hard work of companies up and down the country.”
In a further boost to the economy, separate figures from the Office for National Statistics also released yesterday showed manufacturing output reached its highest level since February 2008.