Russian sanctions destroyed 400,000 jobs in Europe

The economic war with Russia cost the EU countries almost 18 billion euros in 2015. Trade relations have been hit hard, new research by the Economic Research Institute (WIFO) published by derStandard shows.

Vienna is a small supporter of EU sanctions against Russia. “Austria is against strengthening and renewing such restrictions,” said Minister of Economy Reinhold Mitterlehner in November. But Brussels, a few days before Catholic Christmas, is extending economic sanctions for another six months until July 31, 2017. Russia also did not move away from its "side measures" and retained retaliatory sanctions.

However, new research by the Economic Research Institute (WIFO) shows that trade relations between Russia and the EU countries would suffer on a large scale even without the sanctions policy. The reason is that, in the first place, the Russian economy began to weaken as a result of the fall in oil prices, which led to the devaluation of the ruble. Thus, imports from abroad have become more expensive.

The actual damage is determined by WIFO in the case of complex econometric models, taking into account the sanctions and counter-sanctions. For Austria, this shows: The economic output was lower in 2015 by 550 million euros, and about 7,000 jobs were lost. In Germany, the damage amounted to about 6 billion euros and 97,000 jobs. For the EU-27 (data excluding Croatia), WIFO identified a decrease in production of 17.6 billion euros, as can be seen from the graph. As a result, nearly 400,000 jobs were lost.