Robert Firth
ANDALUCIA is ‘in the eye of a Brexit Hurricane” the Andalucian junta has warned.
Last year Britain bought €2.28 billion worth of goods and services from the region, making it the fourth most profitable foreign market for Andalucia.
The UK accounts for 7% of Andalucia’s sales to the rest of the world, meaning that the region is especially susceptible to the fallout of Brexit.
British firms have invested €1.48 billion in Andalucia in the last two years and a half years, 13.8% of all investments by foreigners.
One of local government officials’ biggest concerns is the impact of Brexit on the tourist sector in Andalucia.
Andalucia received over eight million tourists in the first eight months of 2019 and British tourists account for just under 25% of these visitors.
The document estimates that the decline in tourism in the event of Brexit could take a percentage point off Andalucian GDP.
In the statement, the junta also pointed out the importance of the aeronautical sector to the trading relationship between Britain and Andalucia.
The document also made reference to the threat Brexit poses to Andalucians living away from home in the UK.
The junta estimate that there are around 18,000 Andalucians between the ages of 25 and 55 living and working in the UK, whose daily lives Brexit is likely to disrupt.
Likewise, there are almost three quarters of a million Brits, mostly of retirement age, living in Andalucia.
It’s corrected now – but it is billions not millions in the first few pars