If the U.K. decides to leave the EU in June, German businesses could be affected in a number of ways. This is what our current Brexit Briefing widget shows with Germany being the third most mentioned country in news and social media in connection to Brexit. 

The German economy grew a seasonally-adjusted 0.7% in the first quarter of 2016, accelerating from a 0.3% expansion in the preceding quarter and matching preliminary estimates. It is the strongest expansion since the first quarter of 2016 but a Brexit might bring a stop to this growth.

The impact of Brexit on Germany is likely to depend largely on what arrangement replaces the current one between the two countries. The U.K. ranks third in the list of countries to which Germany exports, and Germany ranks second in the list of countries from which the U.K. imports.

In total, more than 2,500 German firms have subsidiaries which are based in the U.K., employing around 370,000 people. Taking the car industry into consideration alone, last year Germany sold 810,000 cars to the U.K. — around a fifth of the total number of cars it exports worldwide.

The majority of Germans apparently agree. Earlier this month, a poll revealed 79% don’t want Britain to leave the EU. The German news magazine Der Spiegel even published a cover with “Please don’t go!” Covered in a union jack and printed in English and German, the publication is dedicated to the referendum debate.

It can be concluded that Brexit has enormous potential for affecting the cross-border business relations between the UK and Germany, the ultimate effects though are hard to predict at the time being.

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