3 Years After Brexit Vote, Dire Warnings for UK Economy Have Proved Wrong

By Anthony B. Kim

Pollsters had heart palpitations in June 2016 as the people of Great Britain voted to leave the European Union.

A dismayed media spouted speculative hysteria about the British economy that spread faster than a fire at a match factory. Three years after the June 23, 2016, referendum, however, the establishment in Westminster remains incapable of admitting it was wrong.

The reality is that the uncertainty surrounding
Brexit has had little obvious effect on the British economy.

Despite doomsday predictions, the British
economy since the Brexit vote has not lived down to Brexit opponents’
expectations and has managed to outperform and outrank the other large
economies of the European Union.

According to The Heritage Foundation’s 2019 Index of Economic Freedom, the United Kingdom has the world’s seventh-freest economy and scored more than 10 points higher than the regional average.

Three economies that have been integral to the European Common Market since its inception, Germany, France, and Italy, by contrast, ranked 24th, 71th, and 80th, respectively.

The United Kingdom’s economy grew at an annualized rate of 1.4% in the first quarter of 2019. At first blush, that number isn’t particularly impressive, but it quickly becomes commendable when compared with economic performances across the English Channel and parroted economic forecasts.

France grew 0.9% and Germany grew 0.6% in the first quarter, while Italy registered no growth at all. The entire eurozone grew at only 1.1%. Despite predictions of gross domestic product losses of up to or greater than 5%, the British economy has grown every quarter since the referendum.

Unemployment is below 4%, the lowest it’s been since the early 1970s, according to the Office for National Statistics. The unemployment rate in Britain is half the eurozone rate (7.8%), and less than half of Italy’s and France’s at 10.2% and <a target="_blank" …read more

From:: Daily Signal – Feed

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