LONDON: The United Kingdom will outperform its struggling European peers in the next 15 years, helping it to cling onto its place among the world’s biggest economies, according to long-term projections.

Britain and France will remain in sixth and seventh position by 2039, respectively, as Germany, Italy and Spain slip down the leaderboard, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) predicted.

The upbeat assessment will be welcomed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer after official figures this week showed the economy has failed to grow since his Labour government took power in July.

Survey data point to a dismal final quarter that is expected to spill over into 2025.

Starmer is hoping his plans to deliver the fastest sustained growth in the Group of Seven, through a blitz of planning reforms, housebuilding and public investment, will eventually pay dividends after a rocky start for Labour. However, CEBR suggested that problems will continue to hamper the British economy.

“While this outlook is markedly better than key European peers like France and Germany, both of whom are expected to slip, this reflects a relatively poorer outlook for eurozone economies rather than strong UK growth,” CEBR said.

CEBR expects Britain to narrow the gap with the poorer-performing German economy over the next 15 years. Europe’s largest economy is expected to be 20% larger than the United Kingdom’s in 2039, compared to being 31% bigger now. — Bloomberg