LONDON (AP) – The British were warned for weeks that a vote to leave the European Union would result in economic pain. Now they’ll find out.
U.K. financial leaders are scrambling to reassure households, businesses and investors that they can contain the doom and gloom they had predicted in case of a British exit, or Brexit. The pound plunged to its lowest level in over 30 years on Friday, raising concerns about price inflation, and shares in the U.K.’s biggest banks and real estate builders posted double-digit declines as economists predicted the country would fall into recession.
Holly Miller, 32, said the vote would affect her economic life profoundly.
“I’m quite shocked by it all,” she said. “I’m just applying for a mortgage so we’re worried about that.”
In an early sign of problems, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the U.K. outlook from “stable” to “negative.” The referendum result, it said, “will herald a prolonged period of uncertainty for the UK, with negative implications for the country’s medium-term growth outlook.”