Since England and Ireland left the European Union (EU) in January 2021, the two countries’ value of trade with the EU has fallen 7 percent, according to official government data.

However, a deeper analysis by the Bank of England (BoE) found the actual drop to be closer to 14 percent, Bloomberg reported.

The economic damage done by Brexit is happening sooner than feared, the Bank of England (BoE) warned.

The central bank said the U.K. economy is being hindered by a sharper slump in trade with the European Union than implied by official statistics and “very subdued” business investment.

“We have not changed our estimate of the long-run [Brexit] effects but we have brought some of them forward,” Ben Broadbent, BoE deputy governor, said in a public statement. 

“We think probably they are coming in faster than we first expected, even if the long-run effect is no different,” he added. Brexit has “pulled down potential output in our country.” 

Brexit also is a factor in an 8-percent slump in business investment since 2019, the BoE noted.

The bank foresees 6-percent declines in business investment this year and again in 2024.