Brexit Talks Could Head for Failure, Austria Minister Says

(Bloomberg) -- Talks on the U.K.’s exit from the European Union may be headed for failure, Austria’s Finance Minister Hartwig Loeger said.

“All of us are realizing in the latest reports: We seem to be on track for a hard landing at the moment,” Loeger said at a conference in Vienna on Thursday.

Loeger discussed the state of Brexit talks with Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe last week and suggested that the Irish government’s expectations are bleak.

“The talk there is of a ‘seismic shock’ for which Ireland has to prepare, because the belief is waning that the U.K. will be able politically to put the talks onto a sensible direction,” Loeger said.

Yet there is still hope “to achieve, in those last few weeks, at least a halfway sensible solution,” Loeger added. “Hope springs eternal.”

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