Britain is nearly half a trillion pounds poorer than previously thought, revised figures from the Office of National Statistics has revealed.
According to the latest ONS figures for Britain’s “Blue Book”, the UK’s net international investment position has collapsed from a surplus of £469bn to a deficit of £22bn – a fall equal to about a quarter of the country’s GDP.
The revised figures show the UK own far fewer international assets and owes more to foreign investors that previously thought, leaving the UK plc in an even weaker position as it looks to leave the European Union.
The new figures show that following the Brexit vote in June last year, direct investment into the UK from abroad has plummeted from a net inflow of £120bn in the first half of last year to a net outflow of £25bn in 2017. Finance firms and pension funds are unwilling to invest capital the UK at a time of such political uncertainty.
Simon Derrick, currency strategist at the Bank of New York Mellon, told the Telegraph there had been a “marked deterioration over recent weeks in purchases of sterling stocks and bonds by ‘real money’ players such as pension funds and sovereign wealth funds”.
The updated figures come just ahead of Chancellor Philip Hammond’s November Budget, where he is under pressure to explain how the UK will cope if the UK does not manage to reach an agreement with the EU before March 2019.
The government has failed to address the concerns raised by the plummeting rates of investment in the UK in recent months.
