Last month’s Islamist terror attacks in Paris, in which 130 innocent people lost their lives, are likely to cost the city up to a quarter of its expect economic growth, the Bank of France has said.
The bank revealed on Thursday that it was expecting 0.3 per cent growth in the fourth quarter, down from the 0.4 per cent previously forecast.
The lost 0.1 per cent represents around €500 million ($543 million) in economic activity, the French Treasury estimates.
“Activity in services rose at a more moderate pace than in previous months,” the Bank of France said in a statement, translated by the Local.
Hotels, restaurants and leisure activities, which “notably weakened in connection with the November 13 attacks”, will feel the impact of what has been described as “economic terrorism” most acutely.
Business services, however, are expected to continue growing.
Despite the negative effects felt by the capital city’s hospitality sector, the bank reaffirmed its forecast for the French economy as a whole, which it still expects to grow by 1.2 per cent in 2015.
Four days ago, a Middle East expert warned that Islamic State terrorists are planning a Paris-style attack on the United Kingdom, to be carried out by British-born jihadis returning from Syria.
The senior European counter terrorism official told CNN‘s Paul Cruickshank of “specific intelligence” obtained by European security agencies, suggesting the UK is the next Islamic State target for a terror attack.
Sussex University’s Suraj Lakhani, a criminology and sociology expert who specialises in radicalisation and violent extremism, warns that young British Muslims are in fact radicalised by British extremists.
“There’s always going to be a fear and a risk that this radicalisation we are seeing is happening within the UK.
“We know that 750 to 1,000 British Muslims have gone to fight with ISIS and that some of them have come back.
“The reality is that there is a high terror alert and there is a threat it’s [Paris Attacks] something that could happen in the UK.”
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