Hello everyone and welcome to this next instalment of our Brexit and Beyond podcast.

And this week, I'm delighted to be joined by my friend and colleague Jonathan Portez, who,

apart from being part of the UK and the Changing Europe team,

is also Professor of Economics and Public Policy here at King's. Hi, Jonathan. Hi. Thank you for

doing this. And we will keep to get you on this week of all weeks because, of course, the economy

is front and centre. So let me start with the real sort of layman's question. What is happening

to the British economy at the moment?

Well, mostly it's what's happening to the global economy.

We exited from the pandemic actually in surprisingly good shape compared to what might have

happened with relatively low unemployment and so on.

But across the world, as economies reopened, we saw various problems with supply chains.

We saw a really sharp spike in energy prices as demand, outpaced supply. And that in turn,

has led to high inflation in most advanced economies, including the UK, as well as continuing difficulties with supply,

with supply chains exacerbated now again by the researchers of COVID in China.

So we have this sort of persistent combination of supply chain issues combined with high energy prices leading to high

inflation pretty much everywhere.

I mean, I've got to ask you this, I suppose.

Is Brexit part of this story or not really?

Brexit is part of the story for the UK, although probably not the main event. If you look at what's happened

to inflation in the UK, US and the EU, the first thing you're going to say is whatever is happening

is happening pretty much everywhere. Brexit has made some things worse. It has exacerbated

some of our supply chain difficulties. It has depressed both

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