Will the UK’s economy flatline like Italy’s?

A new report warns that the UK economy could end the decade looking more like Italy than Germany. But what is there to fear about that outcome? And how realistic is the prospect? Ben Chu investigates

‘Help us’: Alitalia workers stage a protest at Rome’s airport in April (AP)

The Resolution Foundation think tank and the London School of Economics (LSE) on Tuesday launched a major two-year research programme called The Economy 2030.

The goal of is to analyse “the nature, scale, and context for the economic change facing the UK during the 2020s”.

And its launch document argues that if policymakers and politicians make poor choices in the coming years the UK economy risks a period of decline relative to the other major European economies and “will end this decade closer to Italy than Germany when it comes to economic performance.”