Newswise — Portugal will be the next European Union country to face bankruptcy in the wake of rising EU interest rates, and the recent bailout of Ireland will not be enough to calm instability in the region’s financial sector, according to Nikolaos Zahariadis, Ph.D., a professor of government in the University of Alabama at Birmingham, College of Arts and Sciences.
“The announcement of the Ireland bailout will not pacify the markets,” says Zahariadis, author of National Subsidies in the Global Economy.
“The political desire in the Irish and other EU bailouts has been to force private investors to share in the losses, causing heavy fallout that includes increasingly high interest rates. Now, Portugal will become the next EU country to require a bailout or face bankruptcy based on these crippling interest rates, its high budget deficit and weak banks,” says Zahariadis, who also served as the director of International Studies at UAB.
Zahariadis, who is available for media interviews, says the ongoing financial crisis also is driving down the value of the euro, but that could be one bright spot in an otherwise gloomy financial outlook for the EU.
“A weaker Euro could help drive up EU exports, providing valuable revenue for cash-strapped membership countries,” he says.
About the UAB College of Arts and SciencesThe UAB College of Arts and Sciences is home to academic disciplines that include the arts, humanities, sciences and the School of Education. The college’s unique structure advances research and learning in both K-12 and higher education, and its courses are taught by a world-class faculty. Committed to the UAB spirit of independence and innovation, the college enables students to design their own majors, participate in undergraduate and graduate research or complete graduate degrees on a five-year fast track. Through productive partnerships, flexible curricula and a bold, interdisciplinary approach to learning and teaching, the college is preparing students for success in the ever-changing global marketplace of commerce and ideas.
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