No Deal could cost Germany 100,000 jobs, experts predict

A NO DEAL Brexit would cost 100,000 jobs in Germany, experts predict.

The academic study says British imports from the EU could plunge by 25 per cent if the UK leaves without a deal next month.

Concern about the impact of a No Deal Brexit has put mounting pressure on Angela Merkel to help broker concessions that will enable Theresa May to get the agreement through Parliament.

Last week, the German chancellor urged EU leaders to ‘be creative’, saying ‘everybody is willing’ to help find a solution.

The study, cited by the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, suggests that Germany would be among the foreign countries hit hardest by a No Deal Brexit.

It estimates that more than 100,000 jobs would be put at risk ‘either directly or indirectly’. This includes 15,000 jobs in the German car industry alone.

‘In no other state is the effect on total employment as great as Germany, which affects around 100,000 people,’ said study co-author Oliver Holtemöller, of the Halle Institute for Economic Research.

‘The employment effects of a hard Brexit would be noticeable above all at the automobile locations.’

France is the next country in line to feel the heaviest effects of a No Deal Brexit, with 50,000 jobs on the line, according to the study. Ireland and Malta would also be hit hard.

Overall, the study estimates that more than 600,000 people worldwide could feel the effects of a No Deal exit.

Meanwhile, a think-tank said household incomes in Britain have taken a £1,500 hit since the Brexit referendum in 2016.

Higher than expected inflation also contributed to the fall in the average disposable income of families in the UK, according to a report by the Resolution Foundation. It was ‘hard not to conclude that Brexit must be the single biggest factor’.