The latest forecast from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) warns the City will be overtaken by New York this year, before being pushed further down into third place by Singapore within the next three years.
According to the Sunday Times, the CEBR said London was losing its dominance because of not only a shift from west to east, but also because MPs and the authorities had been “short-sighted over-regulation, penal taxation, and banker bashing.”
The loss of status could cost the economy about £30-£40bn in taxes, the report added.
London’s financial centre has been shrinking in the wake of the crisis, and is expected to do so again this year.
In 2011 it employed 280,000 people, but this is expected to fall to 249,500 this year.
In comparison, New York employed 262,000 people in 2011, and although it will also shed some jobs this year, its total will fall to just 254,000.
The US has also emerged in better shape from the recession, albeit that it entered recession earlier than the UK.
