NIESR: UK's Hammond to warn of Brexit hit to spending hopes - Reuters

According to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), a UK-based think-tank, the UKJ Finance Minister Philip Hammond will express concerns on the negative impact of a no-deal Brexit on the public finances and prevent an end to austerity when he delivers his annual budget next week, Reuters reports.

Hammond is likely to deliver a budget plan on Monday.

Amit Kara, a NIESR Economist, noted that “better-than-expected growth in Britain’s economy this year — albeit still slow — and progress in closing the budget deficit meant Hammond can already fund May’s plan for more spending on the health service.”

“If we have a hard Brexit on the other hand, then we lose a lot of this space,” Kara said.

“A no-deal Brexit would push Britain’s budget deficit up from an estimated 1.7 percent of gross domestic product this year to 2.7 percent in two years’ time, while public sector net debt would rise slightly to around 86 percent of GDP before falling only slowly by the mid-2020s,” Kara concluded.