The German economy has lost some $727 million in exports as a result of imposing sanctions against Russia and consequent counter-sanctions introduced by Moscow, Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten reported citing Julian Hinz, an economist at the Kiel Institute for World Economics.
He added that according to his estimates, Germany has suffered 40% of the total losses among those countries that have sanctioned Moscow, meaning that the UK, France and the US have been left almost untouched by the sanctions backlash.
The economist noted that the key problem for the German economy is not the sanctions themselves, but the difficulties in financing trade operations with Russia.
"The main damage is caused not so much by the direct impact of the sanctions, but by the fact that companies now have a hard time financing their trade with Russia since most German banks have already withdrawn from Russia," he said.
It is hard to estimate the exact amount of damage done by the anti-Russian sanctions, the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce told Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten. According to the organization, the recent metrics have shown "hundreds of millions of euros" in losses in the short term and "billions" in the long term. The chamber also warned that as German firms find it more difficult to do business in Russia, their place will be taken by Asian rivals.
READ MORE: German Businesses Urge EU, Berlin to Defend Against US Anti-Russian Sanctions
Earlier, the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations addressed EU authorities urging them to defend European business from secondary extraterritorial US sanctions against Russia, saying they "violate [European] democratic sovereign rights."
In January 2018, former US Vice President Joe Biden admitted that Washington had pushed its European allies into imposing economic sanctions against Russia. According to him, it could only be possible due to reluctant help from German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
