Germany will be the "biggest loser" if the UK votes to leave the EU next month, says the head of a prestigious economic research institute.
Clemens Fuest, president of the Munich-based Ifo (Institute for Economic Research), said, "Brexit would be a big loss for everyone involved but Germany would be the biggest loser because the UK is a very big market for our exports."
His comments, reported in the German press, come after the director general of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Markus Kerber, said that a Brexit would cause "major damage on both sides."
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Kerber warned that subsequent negotiations over a new relationship between the UK and the EU would likely be "cut and thrust".
Germany exported goods worth €90bn to the UK in 2015. At the same time, more than 2500 German companies have offices in the UK employing approximately 370,000 people while 10 per cent of foreign direct investment in the UK comes from Germany.
With the Brexit campaign entering its final stages, the European Commission has postponed the presentation of its draft 2017 EU budget until after the 23 June UK in-out referendum.
A Commission official said there was "no link" between the delay and the British referendum, while Kristalina Georgieva, the Commission's Vice President in charge of budget issues, was reported as saying that the draft proposal required extra preparation time in order to factor in new spending to deal with the migration crisis.
But Jonathan Arnott, a UKIP MEP on the European Parliament's budgetary control committee, told this website, "EU membership costs the UK a huge bag of cash each day, but the Commission wants to keep the British public in the dark about exactly how much this will increase.
"The Commission is dishonestly withholding vital information from British taxpayers who deserve a fully-informed discussion about how much the EU is costing us.
"We currently know the EU is also holding back a wall of legislation until after the Brexit vote, but this latest move should alarm everyone who wants to make a democratic decision based on the factual cost of EU membership."
UK Prime Minister David Cameron recently admitted that the UK has regretted "turning its back" on Europe in the past, and that the EU had "helped reconcile" countries and maintain peace on the old continent.