Britain and the EU on Thursday, September 28, hailed the progress of "constructive" Brexit divorce negotiations following a major speech by Prime Minister Theresa May, but Brussels warned that trade talks may still be months away.
Speaking after the 4th round of talks in Brussels, European Union negotiator Michel Barnier and his British counterpart David Davis agreed that May’s speech in Florence had created a "new dynamic" for the discussions.
Ratings agency Moody’s downgraded Britain’s credit rating by a further notch, saying the government’s plans to fix the public finances had been knocked off course and Brexit would weigh on the economy.
Moody’s brought the UK’s credit rating down from an Aa1 rating to an Aa2 rating over the weekend amid fears its public finances were not going to do well as a result of Brexit.
The BBC reported Friday banks and building societies in the UK will carry out checks from January to see if account holders are in the UK legally or not. The BBC quoted The Guardian as saying 70 million accounts will be looked at quarterly.
The BBC said financial institutions will be provided with a list from anti-fraud organisation Cifas on people who are liable for removal or deportation from the UK or who have absconded from immigration control, and these organisations will then have to report anyone they discover and freeze or close the accounts.
Analysts warned that UK’s economy will most likely downgrade this year. In your opinion, how long will it take for the UK economy to stabilise?
I would suggest that it depends on exactly what we mean by stabilise; in my opinion, growth is rather to be stable for the next few quarters, but it will still hold at a relatively low level. If we look at the GDP growth in the second quarter, it was 0.3%, slightly higher than in the first quarter. My current view is that the GDP will probably hold at the same level during the H2 of this year and in 2018 as well. Growth will be relatively stable, but again, stable at a relatively low level.
If you ask me when do we think that growth will be turned to a certain trend rate of growth, which is probably closer to 0.5% a quarter, then we do not think that this is likely to happen anytime soon; maybe in the H2 of 2018 at the earliest.
Proposals to force a post-Brexit cut in low-skilled migrants from the continent have ignited a political row on the eve of an explosive Commons battle over EU withdrawal.
A leaked Home Office document outlining ways to restrict immigration heightened the political temperature over Brexit after Labour insisted it would vote against the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, which gets its second reading in Parliament on Thursday, and pro-Europe Tory MPs threatened to back amendments to the landmark legislation.
UBS is mulling over shifting its trading headquarters from London to Frankfurt inside the European Union (EU), post Brexit, as Bloomberg report.
The Swiss firm’s investment bank employs about 4,800 bankers globally and could move 250 or more jobs out of London to Frankfurt and other European locations, two of the people briefed on the deliberations said, asking not to be identified as the talks are private.
Almost a million EU citizens working in Britain – many of them young, highly qualified and much sought-after by businesses – are either planning to leave the country or have already made up their minds to go as a result of Brexit, a study has found.
A survey of 2,000 EU workers in Britain by KPMG, the professional services firm, found that 55% of those with PhDs and 49% of those with postgraduate degrees were either planning to go or were actively considering it.
If all of those considering departure actually left, it would reduce the UK’s national workforce by 3.1% – almost one million people – said the consultancy firm.
Brexit is set to deliver a much-heralded jobs boom with over 80,000 new roles to be created in Frankfurt.
A new report released by lobby group Frankfurt Main Finance found that the expected influx of 10,000 financial services staff over the next four years – fuelled by relocation plans and a banking exodus from London – will result in the creation of up to 87,667 new roles throughout the Rhein-Main-Region.
