Failure to seal post-Brexit deal would more than halve UK growth, says KPMG

Failure to strike a post-Brexit trade deal would cut the UK’s economic growth rate by more than half next year, delaying a full recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report.

The accountancy firm KPMG said the economy would suffer heavily should the UK fail to secure a trade deal with the EU before the end of the Brexit transition period at the end of December, just as the country attempts to escape the deepest recession since records began.

Warning that companies were not ready for such an outcome after a year of turmoil triggered by the pandemic, KPMG said GDP growth would be 4.4% in 2021 without a deal, comparedwith 10.1% if the UK and the EU maintained existing relations...

This was excerpted from the 18 November 2020 edition of The Guardian.