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He was asked by the BBC if he and the majority of economic forecasters were too gloomy about the UK's prospects in the run-up to the vote to leave the European Union last June.
O'Neill replied: "I'm almost embarrassed to accept that it might sound like that.
"Because of course in principle I share the views of many that Brexit is a really weird thing for the UK to impose on itself from an economic perspective."
A study by Cambridge Econometrics for the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, earlier this month estimated UK growth would be 3% lower by 2030 than it would have been if Britain remained inside the EU's customs union and single market.
But O'Neill said: "If that's the worst that Brexit will deliver, then I wouldn't worry about it.
"Now, my own view is if we go for a really hard Brexit or a no-deal Brexit, we'll probably suffer more than that 3%.
"But if it is only 3%, what's going on with the rest of the world - helping us - and with productivity improving, that will easily dwarf a 3% hit over 13 years, easily." [...]