UK economy shrinks as Brexit, global woes rise

Britain’s economy appears to have shrunk for the first time since late 2012 between April and June, as worries about Brexit were compounded by global trade tensions, according to a closely watched survey.

A day after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney warned of the growing risks from a no-deal Brexit and protectionist trade policies, a gauge of Britain’s huge services industry — the IHS Markit-CIPS services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) — slipped to just above the no-growth level. Equivalent surveys for UK manufacturing and construction published earlier this week showed those sectors contracted in June, meaning Britain’s economy overall probably shrank by 0.1% in the second quarter, IHS Markit-CIPS said.