Of course, what we were witnessing was not the normal cyclical development of an economy, but the transitional effects of a once-in-a-generation structural change to the tax system. The fact that it led to a negative number for the change in GDP had a big effect on people’s confidence.
I will say a few more things on the importance of the British referendum for the rest of the EU tomorrow morning in my lecture on Europe’s political economy at the event hosted by the Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Today, I will limit myself to only one comment.