Researchers from the London School of Economics' Centre for Economic Performance said, the 2016 Brexit vote spurred British companies into increasing investment in European Union countries sharply, likely at the expense of spending at home.

The referendum result led to a 12% increase in foreign direct investment transactions from Britain into the EU between mid-2016 and September 2018. That translated into an increase of around 8.3 billion pounds, concentrated entirely in the services industry.

Conversely, the research pointed to an 11% drop in investment transactions from the EU into Britain, worth around 3.5 billion pounds.