EU humiliated as Germany told to 'copy Brexit Britain' to save economy

An economist has warned that Germany should copy Britain to avoid a loss of prosperity.

The suggestion comes after Germany faces industrial decline and threat of Donald Trump’s tariffs, reports The Telegraph.

Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING and a German native, said Europe’s manufacturing engine needed to reinvent its economic model and look to a post-Brexit UK for lessons on how to succeed.

Mr Brzeski said: “The UK had its Brexit shock and went through a transition already.

“One of the issues I’ve noticed in Germany over the last 10 years is because it was going so well on the surface at least until 2020, foreign countries only existed as goods export destinations, but not so much as a source of inspiration. This should change now.”

He added that Germany should “at least check out what you can learn from the UK to keep a bit of industry but to reinvent the economic business model”.

Many of the biggest economic concerns Britain faced before Brexit never actually happened despite concerns about what leaving the EU could do to the economy.

Since leaving the EU, research at London School of Economics has found that UK exports have grown at a similar rate to exports of other European countries.

According to Reuters, The International Monetary Fund predicts Germany will be the only G7 economy that shrank in 2023 and at 0.9%, growth is expected to remain well below the average of 1.4% for advanced economies in 2024.

Mr Brzeski added: “[Germany] has a relatively solid labour market. If the Volkswagen engineer gets laid off, he or she can definitely become a barista in Berlin because there we have thousands [of such jobs].

“Will he or she be able to earn the same salary? Probably not. This is how this gradual loss in economic prosperity will turn out.”

It looks like Germany is likely to see a winter in recession and its economy has grown very little since the pandemic.

Germany is now facing the prospect of trade tariffs under Donald Trump.

ING analysis shows that Germany needs to invest the equivalent of 1.5pc of GDP every year for the next decade to overhaul the economy.

CNN reported that Germany’s weak economy is the result of a weakening government.