Brexit is distracting Britain’s government and businesses from the longer-term challenges of boosting productivity and living standards, Bank of England Chief Economist Andy Haldane said on Friday. BoE Governor Mark Carney has previously said Britain’s economy has so far probably grown almost 2 percent less than it would have done if voters had backed staying in the European Union at June 2016’s referendum. Haldane told a public forum in Bristol, southwest England, that Brexit preparations were delaying longer-term work on boosting Britain’s very weak rate of productivity growth that set in around the time of the ... (full story)