Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Purdue Economist: 'Brexit' Has Little Short-Term Impact On Indiana

Iker Merodio
/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ikermerodio/4673992149

A Purdue University economist says he doesn’t think Indiana will feel much of an impact after voters in the United Kingdom elected to leave the European Union.

Jerry Lynch is a former interim dean of Purdue’s Krannert School of Management and says the state and its businesses will have to take a wait-and-see approach.

“It’s not going to be dire," Lynch says. "It has the potential, depending on the kind of agreements that get negotiated, of slowing down world growth in the economy. And if world growth slows down, Indiana is affected by it, there’s no question at all.”

And as for what he says Hoosier businesses should be hoping for out of new trade agreements between the U.K. and U.S.?

“Business as usual," he says. "You hope that we don’t get into some punitive exchange with Great Britain and make it more difficult.”

Lynch says he thinks British companies with a significant presence in Indiana – such as Rolls-Royce and food chemical manufacturer Tate and Lyle – will likely find it more profitable to stay near their existing supply chains than to divest from the state.