A disruptive Brexit would plunge the U.K. into recession, with rising unemployment and tumbling wages, according to an analysis by global rating agency Standard & Poor’s.
S&P said property prices would fall rapidly, while inflation would leap to around five percent if Prime Minister Theresa May failed to secure a deal to prevent the U.K. crashing out of the E.U. next year.
The agency said it still expected both sides to agree a Brexit deal, but noted the possibility of a no-deal exit has become more likely in recent months following deadlock with Brussels over a number of key issues, including the Northern Ireland border.
“For the U.K., a disruptive Brexit could likely lead to a domestic political crisis and, in turn, the economy contracting, leaving the property market vulnerable if unemployment rose abruptly,” the agency said in its report.
Banks in Britain would be especially vulnerable in such a no-deal scenario, according to the report, while banks in other open European economies, like Ireland, Belgium or the Netherlands, are expected to “be able to accommodate it”.
S&P said that with less than six months to go before Britain’s EU exit date, some financial institutions “have now reached the point of no return, and have started to trigger aspects of their contingency plans — such as cross-border legal entity mergers and the establishment of additional licensed entities.”
The S&P report warned that in the event of a no-deal, U.K. unemployment would rise from 4 percent to 7.4 percent by 2020, inflation would rise, and house prices would likely fall by a tenth over two years. London office property prices could fall by 20 percent over two to three years.