Four years after the UK exited the European Union and three years after leaving its formal structures (single market and customs union), the British economy is becoming a bit more European.
While the United States continues to grow at pace (an annual rate of 3.1 per cent in the last quarter of 2023) the UK has fallen into recession, contracting by 0.3 per cent in the last three months of 2023, following a 0.1 per cent fall the quarter before). Yet regular readers of this newsletter will know my view that comparison is the thief of joy, and British-American economic comparisons are the most miserable variety.
