Yahoo Finance What global executives really think about Brexit
During an intense week at the World Economic Forum, global company executives used the event to voice their concerns over Britain’s impending departure from the European Union.
While some toed the line and said it’s still too unclear to predict the outcome of Brexit, we heard from a number of the world’s most powerful people that they have put investments and jobs on pause, moved or about to move operations overseas, and that no-deal (also known as a hard) Brexit is the worst case scenario for industries.
For example:
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde re-emphasised that a no-deal Brexit will be a threat to global economic stability;
Bank of England governor Mark Carney warned that Britain’s ports and infrastructure is not good enough to withstand and that it will be unpredictable what that will mean for interest rates;
Britain’s own chancellor Philip Hammond said “there will be very significant disruption in the short term and a very significant hit to our economy in the medium to long term;”
Former UK chancellor George Osborne said delaying Brexit is “most likely” and that the possibility of a no-deal Brexit is playing Russian roulette with the economy;
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said that the bank will not invest in Britain as much if there is a hard Brexit.
And over the last week, we saw:
Airbus CEO Tom Enders released a video to the public saying: “Please don’t listen to the Brexiteers’ madness which asserts that, because we have huge plants here, we will not move and we will always be here. They are wrong… If there’s a no-deal Brexit, we at Airbus will have to make potentially very harmful decisions for the UK”
Sony is moving its European headquarters from the UK to the Netherlands to avoid disruptions caused by Brexit;
British billionaire and major Brexit supporter James Dyson to move moving his vacuum cleaner and hair dryer company Dyson’s headquarters from Britain to Singapore.
Check out the video below to hear what more executives have to say about Brexit to Yahoo Finance UK’s Alanna Petroff:
