Brexit not developing into a crisis: Lew

The US Treasury Secretary said Britain’s decision to leave the EU has had an orderly impact on markets.

US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew says after the Brexit vote "there is no sense of a financial crisis developing". Picture: AP Photo/Lee Jin-man.

US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew on Monday said following the UK’s decision to exit the European Union, there doesn’t appear to be a financial crisis in the making and that the world’s economic systems are working.

Mr Lew, in an interview on CNBC, said there is “no sense of a financial crisis developing” in the aftermath of last week’s “Brexit” vote, and that while there has been market volatility, “it’s been an orderly impact so far.”

As a result of the vote the US economy will be faced with an “additional headwind, but it is something that we can manage through, and Europe and the UK can manage through,” said Mr Lew.

“I believe there will be economic headwinds,” but as seen in the aftermath of the UK vote “there is a kind of orderliness in the markets” and the “systems are all working,” he told the financial network.

Mr Lew said he favours letting “some of the immediate reaction flow through” and not to over react “to a volatile day here or there.”

World leaders, he said, need now to speak “with a kind of reassurance that makes it clear that there’s going to be a period of time through which responsible parties will work through this.”

Mr Lew declined to offer a suggestion on when to begin the legal process of exit.

The US economy, he added, is doing “pretty well. It’s performing in a stable, steady way.”

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