Europeans '˜more concerned about impact of Brexit than British'

PEOPLE in several European countries are more worried about the impact of Brexit on their own finances than the British, research has revealed.

Europeans 'more concerened' about Brexit than Brits. Gerard Cerles/AFP/Getty Images

The study shows that more shoppers in Spain, Poland and Italy are concerned about the effects of the UK leaving the EU on their economies than British consumers are about the UK economy.

Almost half of Spanish consumers (48 per cent) think Brexit will have a negative effect on their economy, compared to just 39 people of people in Britain.

The survey of more than 7,000 people across Europe by consumer analysts Mintel in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union also revealed that 41 per cent of Italians and Poles fear Brexit will have a ‘somewhat’ or ‘extremely’ negative impact on their own economy.

And more than a third of Germans (36 per cent) agree that the UK’s vote to leave will have a negative impact on their own country’s economy, while 31 per cent of French consumers expect it to impact France’s economic growth.

Just under four out of 10 Brits (39 per cent) expect the UK’s vote to have a negative impact on our economy.

And a sizeable minority of British consumers (25 per cent) actually welcomed the result and believe it will have an ‘extremely’ or ‘somewhat’ positive impact on the economy.

But their European counterparts are far more negative about the UK’s economic prospects now that Britian has voted to leave the EU.

Almost two-thirds of Germans (64 per cent) believe that Brexit will have a negative effect on Britain’s economy, as do 58 per cent of Spaniards, 50 per cent of the French, 43 per cent of Italians, and 41 per cent of Poles.

Toby Clark, of Mintel, said: “The results show how widely the repercussions of the Brexit vote have spread and clearly highlight the risk that uncertainty and disruption have, as well as the potential to drag down consumer sentiment across the continent as a whole.

“But the data also shows that British consumers are much more upbeat about their prospects than their counterparts in other key European markets.”

While the negative effect on their own country’s economies is top of European consumers’ Brexit concerns, fears over unemployment are also high.

The research revealed that 42 per cent of Italians, 40 per cent of Spanish and 50 per cent of Poles believe that Britain’s vote to leave the EU will have a negative effect on their respective national unemployment levels.

But only 37 per cent of people in Britain expect Brexit to lengthen dole queues, with 24 per cent believing it will actually have a positive effect and reduce unemployment.

British shoppers are the most concerned that the cost of living will go up in the wake of Brexit (46 per cent) followed by 41 per cent of Italians, 36 per cent of Poles and 34 per cent of Spaniards.

Less than one in five Germans (22 per cent) expect their cost of living to be negatively impacted by Brexit.

Only 27 per cent of Brits expect their household income to be negatively impacted by Brexit, while the majority of people both heare and in the rest of Europe say Brexit will have limited or no effect on their own career prospects.

Mr Clark added: “It’s clear that the vote has unsettled people, but in the UK especially, people separate the impact that Brexit will have on the economy as a whole, and what it means for their own finances.

“For the moment at least, five years of steady economic growth and falling unemployment means that many people feel well-insulated from the potential downsides of the vote.

“British consumers are far more optimistic about their own financial situation than they are about the prospects for the economy as a whole.

“For most people, nothing has actually changed yet - they’re still in a job and prices in the shops haven’t changed dramatically.

“Post referendum, the nation’s spending intentions don’t appear to have shifted markedly, other than plans to spend on the home, which seem to have been hit the hardest.

“For most consumers, there’s no real trigger to change spending patterns at the moment.”

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