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German companies to scale back exports, investment from Britain: survey

Xinhua, July 7, 2016 Adjust font size:

German companies will export less to Britain and plan to scale back investment and cut jobs in the island country after the British decision to leave the European Union, a survey found on Thursday.

One in four companies said they would reduce their exports to Britain because of the political and legal uncertainty, according to a survey by the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) based on over 5,600 companies.

More than one-third of German companies plan to scale back investment in Britain, and 26 percent will cut jobs in the country.

"As a result of the exit, German companies see additional bureaucracy, more certificates and legal differences as big problems," said DIHK president Eric Schweitzer, adding that it was important "that the negotiators find the right balance between good future trade relations with the UK and a further operation of the internal market".

Britain was Germany's third biggest exports market and fifth most important trading partner. In 2015, Germany exported goods worth 89.3 billion euros (about 98.98 billion U.S. dollars) to Britain.

On Thursday, DIHK lowered its forecast for German exports to Britain. It expected the exports to fell by one percent in 2016 and to drop by 5 percent in the next year. Endit