Carmakers have power to spare after Brexit

Brexit

Britain’s motor industry is one of the country’s economic success stories. Employing more than 800,000 and making up 12 percent of exports, according to the industry’s trade body.

CCTV’s Richard Bestic reports.

The latest manufacturing figures reflect that with a record rise in production up to the point when Britain voted to quit the European Union.

Now confidence in an industry worth more than $90 billion has switched to uncertainty over Britain’s post-Brexit European relationship.

GlaxoSmithKline, Britain’s biggest pharmaceutical company has signaled confidence in Britain with $350 million of new investment.

London’s City Airport is spending $450 million to expand.

But even with unexpectedly good economic growth figures from the U.K.’s Office of National Statistics in the three months before Brexit, Britain’s finance minister talks of challenge.

Next week, the Bank of England will announce what measures it needs to face that challenge.

The government and Bank of England both face the same problem. Hard economic facts are short on the ground.