The survey suggests corporate investment was about 3%-4% lower because of the Brexit vote

Businesses spent as much as £7.7bn less on new factories and equipment in the year after the EU referendum because of Brexit uncertainty, according to analysis by the Bank of England.

The survey of 1,200 companies, published with the Bank’s quarterly inflation report last week, suggests corporate investment was about 3%-4% lower in the 12 months to June 2017 than it would have been — a loss of between £5.7bn and £7.7bn.

While the Bank’s figures do not suggest a severe hit to gross domestic product, lack of investment has often been identified as central to the UK’s low productivity growth.

“Firms seem to be taking the exporting windfall and banking it as profits rather than investing it,” said Peter Dixon, UK economist at Commerzbank.