Brexit would spur ‘market volatility, slower growth’: IMF

Washington (AFP) – The International Monetary Fund warned Thursday that a British vote to break with the European Union next week would rattle markets and weigh on economic growth.

“A vote for the exit of the EU would precipitate a protracted period of heightened uncertainty, financial markets volatility and slower growth as the UK negotiates its new relationship with the EU,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said at a news conference.

Speaking a week before the June 23 Brexit referendum, the spokesman for the global crisis lender insisted to reporters that he was not sounding an alarm.

“I would characterize it as the IMF doing its job… in an objective way, in an impartial way,” Rice said.

The IMF has warned several times about the potential negative impact of a Brexit. In May, Christine Lagarde, the IMF managing director, said that quitting the EU would be “pretty bad to very, very bad” for the British economy.