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Brexit - No hangovers? City's still got headache

Published: 13:11 23 Sep 2016 BST

Brexit Watch  - No hangover's post Brexit? But the City's still got a headache

For those still mourning the June 23 result, there could be some comfort in the knowledge that post-Brexit, they could drown their sorrows without feeling like trash the next day.

The respected Adam Smith Institute has decided the government could free up regulations if we left the EU allowing drinks makers to create "hangover free" beverages and improve the nation's health to boot.

Sam Brown, executive director at the think tank,  was quoted as saying: "Britain can be a world leader in safe alternatives to alcohol and cigarettes, but we need regulation that fosters those things instead of stamping them out."

Synthetic alcohols, which still give you the haze, are said to be up to 100 times safer than the usual stuff.

May alone to decide Brexit

She was not squiffy but Theresa May might (if not already) come to regret saying "Brexit means Brexit".

However, it does look like the new PM could take some solace in knowing that at some point what Brexit does eventually look like was entirely down to her.

She alone will decide terms for the departure, it was reported Friday, and she will decide at what point the trigger on Article 50 will be pulled.

It came after Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary was rebuffed, much like David Davis had been, for providing a "running commentary" and saying the withdrawal process would start early in 2017.

In Brexit world, it was about the only concrete thing to come out of the week - now three months since the historic vote.

Passporting issue still not stamped out

Whether or not Britain retains access to the single market (astonishingly still up in the air) was once more a hot topic and the threat to the City was said to have been reinforced as data, showing almost 5,500 British firms rely on the so -called  passporting facility to sell and conduct services in Europe.

Meanwhile, 8,008 European businesses use that same passport system to provide financial services back in in the UK.

This showed, according to some commentators, how it would also be very much in the EU's favour  to keep the UK in the single market.

Insurance group Lloyd’s of London is one that isn't going to let the grass grow under its feet and revealed it would open an office in another EU country as a contingency.

The historic group said it would lose around £800mln of premiums if it lost passporting rights, 4% of the total. Nearly £3bn worth, or 11% of Lloyd’s premiums, comes from continental Europe.

Economy hasn't fallen off a cliff

There was a U-turn this week, and not from the politicians, but the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which had predicted dire warnings in the immediate aftermath of a leave vote.

This week it actually revised upward its growth forecast this year on the back of solid first half and said it hadn't factored in Mark  Carney's moves at the BoE and the response by the Treasury.

Meanwhile, Swiss broker UBS was fairly confident on the economy so far but is still in doubt longer term, not least as there appears no concrete plan.

It reckons growth in the second half of 2016 is likely to be  much lower than in the first half.

"Surveys point to a slowing of business investment and hiring as firms wait for guidance on what life outside the EU will entail," said UBS scribes.

It has upgraded its forecast for gross domestic product (GDP) to 1.9% for 2016 compared to 1.3% previously and to 0.7% for 2017, from 0.5%.

But it did add: "Although this is a modest upgrade, we caution that growth is likely to be materially lower over the next 18 months than it was prior to the EU referendum."

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