It hasn’t even been a week since the U.K. voted to opt out of EU membership, but the effects are already being felt by people across the British Isles. While the FTSE 100 has recovered somewhat from the massive sell-off in the aftermath of Brexit, the Pound has pretty much been on a free-fall against every major currency since the announcement of the referendum results. Although it has shown some strength today, rising 1.2% against the U.S. Dollar, the recovery is still being described as ‘modest’ by analysts and traders across the board. If fears of a recession still looming large over the nation’s economy isn’t bad enough, consumers in the country may be hit even harder by the falling currency that will only make imported products more expensive going forward.
That being the case, the first salvo has already been fired by Chinese smartphone vendor, OnePlus, who’ve now announced that it might be forced to raise prices of its products in the country if the Sterling falls any further than it already has over the past few days. According to a post on its official blog by OnePlus staff member and blog administrator, Mr. David S, “the worrying downward trend of the GBP may make it difficult to maintain our current pricing structure in the UK”. He, however, reassured would-be customers that the company would put a lot of thought before making any decision to increase the prices of its products in the country, saying that, “it will not be a decision that we take lightly”.
While that’s small consolation for customers if indeed things come to that, the larger issue of economic turmoil, budget cuts, austerity measures and increased taxes are apparently very real possibilities if economists, business leaders, politicians, newspaper columnists and television pundits are anything to go by. While the doom and gloom predicted by supporters of the ‘Remain’ campaign may or may not materialize in the coming months and years (and indeed decades), the fact still remains that the strong Pound that has allowed an entire generation of Britons to afford cheap holidays abroad may well be a thing of the past. What’s even more worrisome is that ordinary citizens may have to learn to live with increased prices of gadgets, automobiles, clothing and other everyday necessities in the foreseeable future as a fallout of the Brexit vote.