It's productivity, stupid…

In September, Simon Tilford of the Centre for European Reform presented a sobering analysis of the UK's economic performance - “Brexit Britain: The poor man of Western Europe?” Contrary to popular belief, the UK has not been one of Europe's economic stars over the last 15 years. Adjusting for living costs, exchange rates and demographic trends, the UK in 2015 is now poorer relative to the EU-15 (eurozone) than it was in 2000.

Northern Ireland has been consistently at or close to the bottom of the regional economic growth table since 2008. Given that our population has been rising over this period, GVA per head (regional economic prosperity) has been diluted further.