Brexit to mean widespread EU spending cuts - budget commissioner

VIENNA (Reuters) - The European Union will have to cut spending in nearly all areas to deal with the gap that net contributor Britain leaves after its departure, Budget Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said on Monday.

Britain's exit in March next year will deprive Brussels of some 12 billion euros from an annual budget running around 140 billion euros.

"Brexit will lead to a smaller budget. That is why we have to reduce spending moderately but notably at almost all our programmes," Oettinger told a news conference in Vienna.

(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; editing by John Stonestreet)