A "DAMNING" report has revealed that Britain’s economy is 5% smaller because of Brexit.
The analysis, carried out by American investment bank Goldman Sachs, found economic growth has been hampered by the impact on trade, weaker business investment and an increase in non-EU migrants coming to study rather than work.
Consumer prices in Britain have soared by 31% since the 2016 Brexit vote, compared with 27% in the US and 24% in the eurozone, it said.
The analysis warned that the “UK has significantly underperformed other advanced economies since the 2016 EU referendum, with lower growth and higher inflation”, The Times reported.
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It also highlighted that lower immigration from the EU is likely to have played a role in “exacerbating labour market tightness and thus contributed to the UK’s higher inflation rates since 2016”.
“EU immigrants tended to have high labour market participation rates, as many of them entered the UK specifically to work,” the analysis said.
“By contrast, many recent arrivals are students, meaning that immigration may be playing less of a role in boosting labour supply than the headline numbers suggest.”
SNP MP Drew Hendry MP, the party’s Westminster economy spokesperson, said: “Brexit continues to be a disaster for businesses, ordinary households and our wider economy - and it’s time the main UK parties at Westminster wake up to this reality.
“Every week we see at least one damning report showing the damage Brexit is doing to Scotland and the rest of the UK.
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“So far this week we’ve learned the UK has lost £100 billion in annual exports as a result of Brexit and that it has significantly underperformed other advanced economies since the 2016 EU referendum, with lower growth and higher inflation.
“Yet the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems continue their conspiracy of silence on the damage of Brexit.
“The SNP is the only main party at Westminster facing reality and speaking up on the havoc of Brexit. It is clear that Scotland needs to rejoin the EU and to do that, become an independent country.”
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