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Germany 'would be biggest loser from Brexit’

The Local Germany
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Germany 'would be biggest loser from Brexit’
Photo: DPA

One of Germany’s leading economists has suggested that Europe’s largest economy would have the most to lose if Britain left the EU.

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“Germany would probably be the biggest loser in the event of a Brexit, except for Britain itself,” said Clemens Fuest, president of the Ifo institute for economic research, Spiegel reports.

The United Kingdom is Germany’s third largest export market, with an annual volume of export of €90 billion.

“An exit would affect all German industry,” Fuest warned, adding that a Brexit would also drastically change the EU in a way which would work to Germany’s disadvantage.

Germany would also have to take on extra billions in the burden of funding the EU to make up for the loss of the UK’s net contribution to the common European project.

But he warned that the EU as a whole would also stand to lose massively from a Brexit scenario.

The economist also said that the “attractiveness of the European single market would recede and the importance of the EU in the world would be more limited” in the event that British citizens vote to leave the EU in a referendum to be held on June 23rd.

The referendum appears to be too close to call, with the Financial Times rolling average of recent polls putting the Remain camp on 43 percent support to the Leave camp's 42 percent.

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