GBP

Brexit could cost the government up to £66 billion a year in lost tax revenue, a draft cabinet committee paper seen by The Times. The document contains a warning that leaving the single market and switching to World Trade Organisation rules would cause GDP to fall anywhere between 5.4% and 9.5% within 15 years and it is based on a controversial treasury report published in April, which critics had dismissed as scaremongering by the treasury, the newspaper said.

The British currency suffered a massive temporary loss in value overnight, diving 10% against the dollar in just minutes – a so-called flash crash. It fell from around $1.26 to near $1.14 in trading in Asia before recovering somewhat by the time Europe woke up, it was the most aggressive move since the results of the Brexit vote emerged in June.

With traders struggling to find whether it was a "fat finger error" or related to fears over Brexit, the Bank of England said in a statement: “We are looking at the causes of the sharp falls over night".

The Bank of England introduced its first plastic 5-pound banknotes Tuesday in UK. They depict Winston Churchill, and are two and a half times more resistant than paper money, in use for over 300 years. Next year, the plastic £ 10 note with the English writer Jane Austen will go into circulation, and followed by the painter J.M.W. Turner £20 note by 2020. In a press release, the bank said it has printed 440 million of the "New Fivers," which will begin to show up immediately in ATMs and at bank counters.

Standard & Poor’s warned Britain to keep their feet on the ground after the recent positive data on the economy across the Channel because the recovery could be short-lived after the Brexit.

"All the celebrations about the economic rebound in August and that in the end life is back to ‘business as usual’ could turn out to be just a mirage in the long term," the ratings agency said, as reported by the Financial Times online.

The British economy rises again: after the collapse of the economic data in July, the month of August marks a turnaround. Today, Markit issued the UK services data, which recorded a strong rise from 47.4 to 52.9 points. And so, though in July there had been the lowest level in last seven years, August recorded the largest month-on-month gain in its 20-year history.

Chris Williamson, economist at Markit, said the figures, claiming that, "the risk of an imminent recession would be avoided", although he called for caution, arguing that as well as July data would have overestimated the effects of Brexit , those of August would show excessive optimism, the average of the two months, then push to show cautious.

However Williamson added: "Many companies are seeing business return to normal either simply by rising customer confidence or a stoic determination to ‘Buck Brexit’ and carry on regardless."

First intervention on rates in seven years by the Bank of England. The institute headed by Canadian Mark Carney announced that it has reduced the benchmark rate from 0.5% to 0.25% setting a new low for the cost of money.
The measure, already announced but then postponed surprise on July 14, is interpreted as a British economic stimulus in the background of the Brexit uncertainties and new alarm about a possible recession.

The unemployment rate in the UK fell to its lowest level in more than a decade in May, a sign the labor market continued to strengthen in the run-up to Britain’s referendum on membership of the European Union, while average weekly earnings edged up in the same month. The unemployment rate in the UK came in at 4.9% in the fifth month of the year, unaffected by the Brexit fears before the referendum. The unemployment rate in the UK measured on a three months moving average basis, therefore, fell below the level of the natural, or non-inflationary, unemployment level of 5.0% estimated by the Bank of England.

Moody’s revised to negative from stable its outlook on the UK banking system due to the release of the UK by the European Union.

"The change of the outlook – according to a Moody’s statement – reflects the expectation that the heightened uncertainty about future trade agreements between Britain and the European Union will lead to fundamental weaker credit for the country’s banks’ .