Since the shocking Brexit vote passed in June, UK businesses have pushed back or canceled investments totaling $82B and over 40% of large companies in the country say they’re scaling back.
That’s according to a new study from the Centre for Economic and Business Research and Hitachi Capital, which shows that execs are reluctant to follow through with spending plans given the UK’s political uncertainty, Bloomberg reports. A lot of that uncertainty has to do with anxiety over what the UK’s new deals with the EU will look like, with some experts speculating the UK will lose access to the bloc’s free-trade agreements that link more than 50 countries.
If that happens, importers will be hit with an additional $1.2B in costs while exporters become undermined by new tariffs in European nations. [Bloomberg]
