|
|
More than 42,000 jobs could be lost in Belgium alone, with the food industry being the sector hardest hit, the economists Hylke Vandenbussche, William Connell and Wouter Simons claimed.
In terms of absolute figures, countries like Germany would be most affected, but in relative terms countries with close historical ties to the UK - for example, Ireland, Malta, the Netherlands and Belgium - stand to lose the most, the report said.
A soft Brexit would still lead to some job losses within the EU, but a considerably smaller rate of 284,000, they said.
However, the economic impact would mean the UK "is hit relatively harder" than the rest of the EU27, with economic activity being dampened around three-times more.
The bloc's GDP would shrink by between 0.38, in the event of a soft Brexit, and 1.54 per cent in a hard Brexit scenario, while the UK's GDP could fall by between 1.21 per cent and 4.48 per cent. [...]