Only a day before the Brexit vote, Gartner issued a forecast for 1.7% growth in UK tech spending this year, from last year’s total of £123.9bn. The UK’s vote to leave the EU will now slice 2-5% from that.
But the Brexit collapse looks set to last much longer: the 2016 decline would only reflect the first phase of retrenchment, before the country even triggers the Article 50 that will lead to negotiations with the EU, with highly uncertain consequences for tech demand, said Mr Lovelock. Meanwhile, the plunge in sterling looks likely to feed through quickly into higher prices in British shops. US-based PC maker Dell confirmed an across-the-board price rise to UK retailers this week, following a report in The Register that it had pushed through double-digit increases.
https://next.ft.com/content/440326e2-43fc-11e6-9b66-0712b3873ae1