Greece is just the 'tip of the iceberg', Nouriel Roubini warns

Greece is just the 'tip of the iceberg', Nouriel Roubini warns
Greece is just the "tip of the iceberg” of a sovereign debt crisis that has the potential to derail a global recovery, Nouriel Roubini has warned.

Published: 6:00AM BST 29 Apr 2010


Nouriel Roubini was one of the few to anticipate the scale of the crisis Photo: Getty Images Professor Roubini, the New York-based academic who was one of the few to anticipate the scale of the financial crisis, told a panel in California that the buildup of debt is likely to lead to countries defaulting or resorting to inflation to ease the burden on their populations.

“While today markets are worried about Greece, Greece is just the tip of the iceberg,” Roubini told the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California. "The thing I worry about is the buildup of sovereign debt.”


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What to do when share prices fall Although Greece's misreporting of the scale of its own debt has helped shatter investors' faith, the southern European country is not alone in its struggle. The depth of the property bust in both Spain and Portugal has prompted the ratings agency Standard & Poor's to downgrade the creditworthiness of both.

European leaders, led by German chancellor Angela Merkel, the International Monetary Fund and Greece's leaders are scrambling to approve a bail-out for Greece as financial markets drive its borrowing costs higher.

"The ripple effects across the market are now more visible," said Ciaran O'Hagan, an analyst at Societe Generale. "Contagion is amplifying."

Italy's sale of up to €8bn euros of debt today will, according to analysts, provide a good gauge of whether the concerns about Greece and Portugal are spreading to other members of the Eurozone.