World economies will need to adjust to living with real uncertainty. Regardless of what the multitude of economists, politicians and market watchers are predicting, the only real truism of the fallout from Brexit is that we are now in uncharted territory.

We have no historical precedent to guide us on the ramifications of unscrambling this EU egg. And we don't know how much damage will be done in the process.

Turning the globalisation clock back however can't be positive for anyone – least of all the 52 per cent of Britons that voted for it.

And already the proponents of the leave campaign that had made big promises on recouping money and stemming the flow of migrants into Britain are starting to backpedal.

Get out the crystal ball

For the most part economists are predicting Brexit will immediately hit economic growth in Europe and the UK which in turn will have an impact on the global economy, including China and Australia.

In a recent paper, the Bank Of England provided a list of nine research house views on the GDP impact of Brexit over one to five years. The average impact is about 1 per cent of GDP – which translates to a 0.04 per cent  impact on global growth.

How extensive the damage will be depends on how long the uncertainty remains. That is no more than an exercise in crystal ball gazing.

Realistically the UK's decision to leave the EU will not have a huge direct effect on the Australian economy given it is not a major trading partner. But we can get caught in the wider fallout.

Given the heightened economic risk, the Australian dollar is likely to be under continued pressures as negative sentiment weighs on commodity prices and investors move into safe havens including US treasuries pushing the US dollar higher.

World economy is still on life support

The reality is that if the world economy was a patient it would be akin to one that is still recovering from a near-death experience – of the global financial crisis. In the years since 2009 the world economies have been struggling to get back on their feet – even the US which has been the most robust in recent years has managed to increase interest rates only once and has just been continuing to agonise when it will dip its toe back into tightening monetary policy.

Brexit has made that decision easier: the US Fed won't be increasing rates again any time soon. The market is factoring on only a 15 per cent change of a rate rise by December.

The foreign exchange and equity markets are thus responding to a threat, the magnitude of which is unknown.

The first blush response in Australia on Friday and around the world over the weekend appeared to be huge – with sharemarkets dropping 3 per cent or more. But this move was exaggerated by the fact that stock markets had risen in the lead-up to the Brexit vote on the assumption that Britain would remain in the EU.

This week's market movements will be reactive. Despite Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron's suggestions that the there should be calm as the government goes through an ordered two-year process of EU divorce that won't really start until after he leaves in October, it seems that the Europeans have a different agenda. They are urging the UK to get on with it.

(The EU is also desperately attempting to put in place measures to ensure that other members don't try the same trick as the British.)

Australian market sitting on the fence

The EU, for example is already preparing to move its European Banking Authority from London following Britain's vote to leave the Union, EU officials said on Sunday, setting up a race led by Paris and Frankfurt to host the regulator.

And there is anything but calm in the UK Labour party as a quarter of the shadow cabinet leaves and its leader Jeremy Corbyn faces a leadership crisis.

At this stage the Australian market is sitting on the fence, selling off only the stocks with direct exposure and assets in the UK and Europe.

While there is some concern about the funding arrangements for the Australian banks that borrow in international markets, it didn't play havoc with their share prices on Monday.

They assured investors they are in positive funding position.

As Monday afternoon wore on, Asian markets appeared to join Australia, taking Brexit in their stride, with Japan up a solidly and Hong Kong down a bit.

AMP's Michael Price put it into perspective: "The Australian market has rallied for three years without earnings growth and could be considered expensive and vulnerable to a loss of global confidence.

"It remains unclear whether Australia will be regarded as a safe haven or a vulnerable economy. The Australian index underperformed the FTSE by around 3 per cent for the week."