Billionaire investor George Soros has said Britain's exit (Brexit) would not spare anybody in the country and those who are hoping to remain unaffected are merely indulging in "wishful thinking."
"Too many believe that a vote to leave the EU will have no effect on their personal financial position. This is wishful thinking. It would have at least one very clear and immediate effect that will touch every household: the value of the pound would decline precipitously," he wrote in the Guardian.
"It would also have an immediate and dramatic impact on financial markets, investment, prices and jobs," he further said.
He said that speculators do stand to enrich themselves if Brexit indeed happens, but many others would suffer.
"Today, there are speculative forces in the markets much bigger and more powerful. And they will be eager to exploit any miscalculations by the British government or British voters. A vote for Brexit would make some people very rich – but most voters considerably poorer," he wrote in his opinion piece for the daily.
Meanwhile, four days after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned Britain that leaving the European Union (EU) would spell disaster for its economy, the World Bank has said that speculation of Brexit is adversely impacting the global economy.
"It's clear that the discussion around Brexit is one of several factors that is contributing to uncertainty in the global economy," Ayhan Kose, Director of the World Bank Group's Development Prospects Group, told IANS.
The referendum will be held two days later (June 23) and has led to uncertainty across stock, currency and commodity markets.
A Brexit would also hit its negibhours. "Ireland, Malta, Cyprus, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium would likely be most affected," according to the IMF report.
Britain is significant to the EU, contributing about 15 percent of the block's gross domestic product (GDP) and accounting for approximately 30 percent of European Union's stock market capitalisation.
Besides, it is a key export market and foreign direct investment source for many emerging and developing economies (EDMEs), according a World Bank report released early this month.
