Dutch PM calls for calm, step by step approach to Brexit vote
Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte has described the pro-Brexit vote in Britain as ‘disappointing’ and said it is important that a solution for the crisis is found ‘calmly and step by step’.
Rutte is now on his way to Brussels for an emergency meeting of European leaders to discuss the British vote in favour of leaving the EU.
The government’s macro-economic forecasting agency CPB said earlier this month a British withdrawal from the EU will cost the Dutch economy €10bn in lost income by 2030.
The drop in trade with Britain will mount up to 1.2% of GDP within the next 15 years, the CPB said. The impact of a Brexit on the Netherlands will be larger than in many other countries because of the close trading links.
Central bank president Klaas Knot said two weeks ago that Dutch firms which trade with Britain will notice the impact of a Brexit in the long term but they will not run acute financial risks.
‘They are already exposed to sterling and will remain so,’ he said. ‘And there will be no wave of British bankruptcies.’
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