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Close to 1 in 10 German firms plan to withdraw their investments from the U.K. and relocate to Germany or elsewhere within the single market, “despite the fact that the terms of Britain’s departure are not yet known,” DIHK President Eric Schweitzer said, referring to a survey conducted in February among 1,300 German businesses operating in the U.K.
Although most German companies judged the business environment to be “halfway solid,” 40 percent of them said they expected business to decline over the next few months.
“An increase in costs due to customs and taxes, as well as added bureaucracy at the new European border, will have a negative influence on business for both sides,” according to the report, which found that exports to the U.K. had already fallen by 3.5 percent since the Brexit referendum last June.