Brexit May Shock U.K. Firms Into Fixing Productivity Malaise
- UBS sees investment pickup as labor supply curtailed
- Persistent weakness has implications for BOE, fiscal policy
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Britain’s productivity malaise may find a solution from the unlikeliest of places -- Brexit.
Poor productivity has long been the bane of the U.K., with output per worker far below the Group-of-Seven average and successive predictions for a recovery since the financial crisis failing to materialize. Still, according to UBS Wealth Management economist Dean Turner, Britain’s exit from the European Union could be the catalyst that triggers an improvement.