According to consultancy firm PwC, the record levels of employment will not prevent the economy’s growth rate slowing down. The effects of the falling pound led the firm to predict that consumer spending will be squeezed by rising inflation and falling living standards, whilst the economy’s growth rate was still expected to dip from 1.8% in 2016 to 1.5% this year and to 1.4% in 2018. John Hawksworth, the chief economist at PwC suggested that “we expect the UK to suffer a moderate slowdown, not a recession, but businesses should be monitoring this and making contingency plans.”