A Bank of England rate-setter has stated that Brexit is forcing the U.K. economy to lose £800 per week in revenue. The amount is equivalent to £800 million in one week and has been igniting concerns among economists.
According to The Guardian, Gertjan Vlieghe, a member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee said that since the Parliament voted for the U.K. to leave the European Union (EU), the country's economy has lost around 2 percent of GDP or £40 billion in a year.
Vlieghe noted that Britain's economic growth, compared to other countries around the world, slowed down significantly due to the effects of Brexit. "UK growth in the past two years has been weaker than we would have expected based on the performance of the global economy alone," he noted.
Since June 23, 2016, the Bank has estimated a cumulative GDP loss of £55 billion as business investment in the U.K. went into stagnation. In 2018, it was reported that investments in Britain dropped by 3.7 percent.
Shortly after the Brexit vote in 2016, local consumption slowed down as prices soared. This consumer behavior has been attributed to the British pound's decline after MPs made the announcement about the British exit.
For Vlieghe, it is not common to see investments contract by a huge margin when other countries around the globe are thriving economic-wise.
Vlieghe isn't the only entity that made estimations on the U.K. economy following the Brexit vote. Threadneedle Street also predicted that Britain could fall into recession - much worse than the financial crisis in 2008 - if Brexit losses keep coming.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Theresa May has once again lost against the Parliament members on Thursday following her initial Brexit deal's loss in January. According to Vox, May asked the Parliament to extend her renegotiations with the EU in a bid to gain more time before Britain departs from the union on March 29.
Some experts suggest that May will either have a hard time convincing her party to support her proposal or she won't get any backing even if the EU offers some sort of a compromise. These scenarios were especially highlighted on Thursday's voting when pro-Brexit MPs in May's government chose to abstain.
One of the key players in the Brexit chaos that has been affecting the U.K. economy is the Irish backstop, an insurance policy that prevents border checks between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, a region Britain is responsible for.
