On Monday 5 February, the Decision Maker Panel (DMP) gave a presentation to HM Treasury and the Government Economic Service on 'The impact of Brexit on UK businesses: Evidence from the Decision Maker Panel'.
To better understand the uncertainty facing British businesses ahead of the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, the Bank of England recently established the DMP in partnership with Nick Bloom, Stanford University and Paul Mizen, University of Nottingham.
The DMP is designed to be representative of the UK business population, and so far, around 3,000 executives from small, medium and large UK companies, operating in a broad range of industries, have agreed to participate. It asks questions about topical policy issues and can provide valuable insights into firms' perceptions of the challenges and opportunities facing the UK economy.
The presentation focused on how UK businesses are being affected by Brexit. Brexit is an important source of uncertainty and is expected to eventually lower sales for many companies, but by no means all. Companies who export to the EU and those who rely on EU migrant labour are much more likely to see Brexit as an important source of uncertainty. Businesses are responding to Brexit by investing less and the DMP provides quantitative evidence of this.
The results were also featured in the national media in December, with the Financial Times and Sunday Times running stories on the DMP's latest findings.
Posted on Friday 19th January 2018