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Great Britain as a business location: 41 percent of exporters report a decline in sales
Photo: TOLGA AKMEN / AFP
The business situation of British exporters has not been good for a long time - and since the United Kingdom's final withdrawal from the European Union (EU) trade association at the beginning of the year, it has worsened again.
This is proven by figures that the British Chamber of Commerce BCC has now published.
41 percent of exporters on the island report a decline in sales in the first three months of the current year 2021 - even though the global economy and world trade have actually been picking up speed again for some time.
Danger of "irreversible weakness"
40 percent reported no changes in business to the Chamber of Commerce, and only 20 percent of British companies state that their sales have increased.
In part, it is the worst export figures "that have ever been registered in the history of our data recording," quoted the Bloomberg news agency Hannah Essex, co-head of the Chamber of Commerce.
It is true that the British government always points out that the setbacks in the export business are "teething problems", a kind of childhood illness after Brexit that will be overcome quickly.
Essex rejects that.
On the contrary, they are "structural problems which, if not addressed further, could lead to long-term and possibly irreversible weakness."
Compared to the also already miserable previous quarters, the situation has even deteriorated further.
For the survey, 2900 British companies with export business were interviewed.
However, companies on the continent are also suffering from Brexit.
The German exporters, for example, are seeing major declines in business with Great Britain.
The export of goods to the United Kingdom fell in the first two months of 2021 by 20.5 percent compared to the same period of the previous year to 9.7 billion euros.
For comparison: total German exports fell by 4.5 percent in January / February.
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