MNI: Dombret: Brexit "Could be Particularly Harmful to the UK"

--BuBa Board Member Warns On Brexit Impact To UK Economy 

By Christian Vits

     FRANKFURT (MNI) - The repercussions of the UK leaving the European Union

could notably harm that country's economy, Bundesbank board member Andreas

Dombret said Wednesday.

     "Brexit is definitely happening, and chances are it will be a hard one - by

which I mean that there will be a complete exit rather than a partial one,"

Dombret said in a speech at the New York University. He underlined that the kind

of economic partnership still has to be determined.

     "If we do not find a solution, the EU and the UK will trade under rules set

by the World Trade Organization -- which is in nobody's interest, but could be

particularly harmful to the UK economy."

     Dombret also noted the "Brexit shows that less integration is not the

solution to the root causes of our economic problems. But a simple case of more

integration is not a solution either."

     He made the point, that a New York-based physician and researcher found a

correlation between a nation's chocolate consumption and the number of Nobel

laureates per population -- no surprise, Switzerland won. Against this

background, Dombret stressed that correlation does not imply causation and

intuition is not always based in fact.

     Then he turned to the Brexit and the political debate in the US. 

     "Confusing correlation with causation is amusing - but it is also

disturbingly similar to what we are seeing in current political debates,"

Dombret said. "Is the idea that more chocolate leads to more Nobel prizes really

any different from the idea that protectionism brings back old jobs? Is it

really any different from the idea that Brexit or the breakup of the European

Union would bring with it increased welfare and security?"

--MNI Frankfurt Bureau; +49 69 97782671; email: christian.vits@marketnews.com

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