LONDON — The economy is "no longer is shaking off the adverse consequences of the Brexit vote," according to economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Britain's economy has defied economists' forecasts and proven robust in the months since the June referendum, but Pantheon's chief UK economist Samuel Tombs says that is now coming to an end.

What's the evidence?

For one thing, the higher spending seen towards the end of last year appears to have been fuelled by a borrowing binge.

Consider the chart below:

Pantheon

British households were borrowing freely last year, thanks to low-interest rates and the wide availability of cheap credit, but spending based on credit is unsustainable.

As the chart above shows, borrowing has started to fall this year, as banks cut back on credit card lending due to concerns that workers will be unable to repay loans in the future economic climate.

GDP growth is set to slow

Official data indicates a very slow rate of GDP growth this year. While Purchasing Managers' Indexes indicate quarter-on-quarter growth slowing to around 0.5% in the first quarter of 2017 from 0.7% in Q4 2016, official data points to a figure closer to 0%, as demonstrated by the two charts below:

Pantheon