Brexit uncertainty is depressing UK growth: finance minister

[August 10, 2018]  LONDON (Reuters) - Uncertainty over Brexit is depressing economic growth in Britain, finance minister Philip Hammond said on Friday after official data showed lackluster year-on-year expansion.

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond leaves 11 Downing Street in London, Britain, July 2, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson

"Clearly that uncertainty is having a depressing effect on economic growth," Hammond told broadcasters during a trip to central England to announce 780 million pounds ($996 million)of public investment in high-tech industry.

Brexit proposals set out last month by Prime Minister Theresa May should lead to economic growth broadly the same as if Britain were to stay in the EU, he added.

Hammond said that in the long run he wanted to see growth rates faster than the year-on-year expansion of 1.3 percent recorded in the second quarter of 2018.

(Reporting by David Milliken and Kylie MacLellan; editing by Stephen Addison)

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