THE grim tidings for the UK economy continue to come thick and fast as Prime Minister Boris Johnson and cabinet colleagues stoke fears of a no-deal Brexit.
Sterling sunk to a 28-month low against the dollar at the start of the week after weekend comments from Michael Gove, minister responsible for no-deal preparations, said the government “must work on the assumption” the UK leaves the European Union (EU) without a deal. That was followed by grim forecasts by the Bank of England, which said on Thursday that there was already a one-in-three chance of a recession because of “Brexit uncertainties” - and worse to come if there is a no-deal outcome.
READ MORE: Lloyds can’t seem to escape expensive scandal
Against that backdrop, it was no surprise to hear Royal Bank of Scotland warn yesterday that Brexit uncertainty is contributing to an extremely challenging backdrop for the institution.
While first-half profits rose, boosted by an exceptional gain on the disposal of its stake in Saudi bank Alawwal, the bank said it was now “very unlikely” that it would meet key financial targets in 2020 because of the protracted economic and political upheaval.
And it repeated that the uncertainty was continuing to cause large businesses to put investment decisions on hold, with corporates reluctant to borrow money to fund expansion while clarity on the shape of future trading arrangements between the UK and the EU remains elusive.
The sense of foreboding was picked up by investors who sent shares spiralling down yesterday, despite the promise of further dividends from the state-owned bank.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here