The United Kingdom will recover from challenges associated with leaving the European Union and prosper after Brexit, according to Thomas Gottstein, chief executive officer of Credit Suisse.
Gottstein, who succeeded Tidjane Thiam to take the top role at the European banking giant in February last year, was speaking as part of a panel discussion at Saudi Arabia’s flagship investment conference, the Future Investment Initiative (FII), in Riyadh.
The UK left the EU’s Single Market and Customs Union on December 31, after both sides finally struck a deal governing new rules for how both parties will live, work and trade together.
Swiss national Gottstein pointed to the fact that Switzerland, which is largely considered one of the world’s most advanced free market economies, was not a member of the EU.
He said: “I think certainly in the short-term, Brexit wasn’t a good thing for Europe, for the EU and for the UK, but coming from a country that is at the heart of Europe and is not part of the EU and is doing very well, I’m convinced that also the UK will do just as well over time.
“They have reached trade agreements, they have a very strong financial centre, they have a flexible labour market.”
In the middle of the protracted exit negotiations, Europe has been hit particularly hard by the global coronavirus pandemic and, in December, EU leaders agreed a $909 billion pandemic relief package that will be financed by joint debt.
However, Gottstein believed that, post-pandemic, both the EU and UK would recover from the split.
He said: “I think Europe has gone through a challenging time and was probably harder hit than most other regions in terms of Covid, but at the same, to some extent, it’s undervalued, so I think there is a good chance that Europe will do better than maybe people think right now.”
The UAE is Britain’s fifth largest export market outside Europe, with total reciprocal trade in goods and services between the two countries reaching £18.2bn last year. This figure is expected to rise to £25bn by 2022, according to the British Business Group (BBG).
Lord Grimstone of Boscobel, Minister for Investment UK at the Department for International Trade
In a separate session, on the opening day of the FII event, Lord Grimstone of Boscobel, Minister for Investment UK at the Department for International Trade, said: “We absolutely have to hit back against protectionism. Already we’re seeing some countries thinking the answer is to pour themselves into themselves. That is not the answer and certainly the United Kingdom, we’re in charge of our own trade policies. We will be arguing for open markets.
“Investment has become one of the world’s globally competitive sports to attract investment. We’re all raising our game, we’re all trying to attract investment.”
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