U.K. economy slipping since Brexit vote

Prices up while wages lag

LONDON — While it’s still unclear what Brexit will look like when it happens next year, the decision to leave the European Union has already had a clear effect on the economy: Households are poorer, companies are more cautious about investing and the property market has cooled.

In the two years since the vote to leave, Britain has gone from being a pace-setter among the world’s big economies to falling into the slow lane. And the uncertainty over what relations with the EU will be when Brexit becomes official March 29 could make matters worse.

On Saturday, tens of thousands of Britons opposed to the country’s withdrawal from the EU marched through the streets of London to demand a vote on the final Brexit deal.

The government plans to give Parliament a vote on the final deal — if one is reached with the EU — later this year.

Officials estimated the protest turnout in the tens of thousands, while organizers said it was at least 100,000.

Brexit supporters held their own rally elsewhere in the city, but their march drew a much smaller crowd, according to the BBC, which said it numbered in the hundreds.

The 2016 referendum saw 52 percent vote in favor of leaving the EU.

Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative government is split on what relations with the EU should be. There are those who favor a “hard Brexit,” a clean break that takes Britain out of the bloc’s free trade union but also gives it more freedom to strike new trade deals around the world. Others want to keep Britain as close as possible to the EU, Britain’s biggest trading part- ner, which could mean it has to obey more of the bloc’s rules.

Big companies are sounding the alarm bell, with planemaking giant Airbus last week threatening to pull out of the country, where it employs 14,000, if it gets no clarity on future trade deals.

“Thousands of skilled, wellpaid jobs are now on the line because of the shambolic mess the government have created over the Brexit negotiations,” said Darren Jones, the lawmaker for the community where Airbus has its plant.

Before the referendum, Britain had been one of the fastestgrowing industrial economies for years. Now, it’s barely growing. In the first quarter of this year, it expanded by just

0.1 percent from the previous three-month period, its slowest rate in five years.

For most people, the first and most noticeable effect was the drop in the pound. The currency slid 15 percent after the vote to a post-1985 low of $1.21. That boosted prices by making imports and energy more expensive for consumers and companies.

Prices have risen and wages have lagged, even though unemployment is at its lowest since 1975, at 4.2 percent.

The New York Times contributed to this report.

Niklas Halle’n / Getty Images Demonstrators carry placards in central London as they participate in a march demanding a public vote on the final Brexit deal. Saturday was the second anniversary of the 2016 referendum.