UK to fall into recession over coming year – BlackRock

LONDON : Britain will fall into recession over the coming year and growth in each of the next five years will be at least 0.5 percentage points lower as a result of Brexit, BlackRock said on Tuesday.

“Recession is now our base case,” Richard Turnill, chief investment strategist at the world’s largest asset manager, said, adding that political and economic uncertainty will remain high after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.

“There’s likely to be a significant reduction of investment in the UK,” he said.

Sterling is expected to fall further as the Bank of England cuts interest rates to zero and expands its bond-buying program, but won’t fall as far as parity with the dollar, BlackRock said.

Sterling hit a 31-year low of $ 1.2796 last week, down around 15 percent since the June 23 referendum.