Poll: Brexit will lead to UK recession

The UK’s decision to quit the European Union has already begun tipping its economy into a mild recession, according to economists in a Reuters poll, most of whom said the Bank of England would chop interest rates again in November.

The poll comes as the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors provided new evidence that Brexit was undermining the near-term outlook for the UK housing market, with both demand and sales dropping in July. New buyer inquiries fell for a fourth month, while its index of sales is pointing to the fastest decline in transactions since the global financial crisis in 2008.

Prices continued to rise, but at the slowest pace in three years. Ahead of the June 23 Brexit vote, economists had predicted growth would continue close to the 0.6% achieved in the second quarter, but median forecasts in the latest Reuters poll showed the economy would contract 0.1% this quarter and next.