Will Brexit lead to Exitaliano?

There's been a huge amount of material written on Brexit, most of which focusses on the future pros and cons of remaining in the EU. However, as the EU has now been in operation for some time, we believe voters will be more inclined to look in the mirror before they pick-up a telescope. That is to say, they will first ask what has the EU delivered for their country, and for them as individuals before they look ahead towards potential future rewards. While Britain ponders an answer, we examine this question for two of the three biggest eurozone members – Germany and Italy - to identify who else may re-think their EU membership. From an economic growth and employment perspective, EU membership for Italy has been very underwhelming relative to Germany. As is shown in Charts 1 & 2 below, GDP growth in Germany has outstripped Italy since 2002. Italy has been in recession for five of the past eight years, while unemployment is currently nearly twice what it is in Germany. Read more: (VIEW LINK)