U.K. Election Result Reduces Companies’ Brexit Uncertainty

(Bloomberg) -- The U.K. election result helped reduce businesses uncertainty around Brexit, according to the Bank of England’s Decision Maker Panel.

Around a third of the 2,887 senior executives surveyed responded after the Dec. 12 vote, the BOE said Thursday. On an unweighted basis, 55% of firms polled prior to the election said Britain’s departure from the European Union was an important source of uncertainty for their business, whereas post-election, this proportion fell to 49%. It remains one of the top three sources of uncertainty for just over half of the firms polled.

The date at which businesses expected the lack of clarity to be resolved was also pushed further into the future. One in four respondents thought that it would not be sorted until at least 2021, up from 34% in November.

The survey was conducted Dec. 6-20.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lucy Meakin in London at lmeakin1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Gordon at pgordon6@bloomberg.net, Brian Swint, Jill Ward

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