Bloomberg
July 13, 2017
Britain could easily withstand paying a hefty financial settlement to leave the European Union, the country’s fiscal watchdog said Thursday.
The bill, which EU officials have suggested could run as high as 100 billion euros ($115 billion) in gross terms, would not pose a “big threat” to fiscal sustainability, the Office for Budget Responsibility said in a report on the fiscal risks facing Britain.
“More important are the implications of whatever agreements are reached with the EU and other trading partners for the long-term growth of the U.K. economy,” the OBR said. “If gross domestic product and receipts grew just 0.1 percentage points more slowly than projected over the next 50 years, but spending growth was unchanged, the debt-to-GDP would end up around 50 percentage points higher.”
The Brexit bill is a key sticking point in the divorce negotiations, with EU officials insisting the U.K. must settle its financial obligations among other things before preliminary talks on a trade agreement can begin. Britain hopes to conclude a trade deal by the time it leaves the EU in March 2019.
This article was posted: Thursday, July 13, 2017 at 8:13 am
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