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Forget Greece; it’s Portugal that’ll destroy euro (karma: 3) en>fr fr>en
By jukinj3

Comments: 15063, member since Tue Apr 08, 2003

On Thu Jan 26, 2012 02:53 PM

Greece is already bust — and its default is already priced into the market. But Portugal is in precisely the same position, just on a longer fuse. It too is sliding toward an inevitable default on its debts — and when it does so, it will deliver a terminal political blow to the single currency, and inflict damage on the European banking system that may well prove catastrophic.

When the eurocrats and Portuguese politicians come out and say that everything is fine in Portugal we will all know that the euro has died.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/forget-greece-its-portugal-thatll-destroy-euro-2012-01-25?siteid=rss&rss=1

Forget Greece; it’s Portugal that’ll destroy euro
Commentary: One default is an accident; two is a systemic crisis

By Matthew Lynn

LONDON (MarketWatch) — It is a long-time since Portugal played a decisive role in world history. The Treaty of Tordesillas, which divided the non-European world up between Spain and Portugal in 1494, was probably its last major contribution, and even that did not end very happily.

But 2012 could be the year Portugal explodes onto the world stage again. How? By blowing up the euro.

Greece is already bust — and its default is already priced into the market. But Portugal is in precisely the same position, just on a longer fuse. It too is sliding toward an inevitable default on its debts — and when it does so, it will deliver a terminal political blow to the single currency, and inflict damage on the European banking system that may well prove catastrophic.

We have known for some time of course that Portugal was in trouble. Back in May last year it became the third euro-zone country that had to be rescued. After bond yields soared up past the crucial 7% level it was forced to ask for a bailout package worth 79 billion euros. The International Monetary Fund and the European Union moved in with the formula they had honed to such perfection in Greece — big tax raises, spending cuts, wage cuts, and a little bit of structural reform. The country — one of the poorest members of the European Union, with a gross domestic product per capita of only $21,000, significantly less than Greece‘s $26,000 — was set a target of reducing its deficit to 4.5% in 2012 and 3% in 2013.

So how’s it going? About as well as it did in Greece — which is to say, not very well at all. The Greek economy is forecast to shrink by 6% this year, and Portugal is not very far behind — Citigroup is predicting the economy will contract by 5.7% in 2012 and another 3% in 2013.

Rising taxes are pushing more and more of the economy off the books. A study for Porto University found that the shadow economy, which doesn’t pay any tax, grew by 2.5% last year, and now accounts for a quarter of Portuguese economic activity. There is no point in expecting that to change any time soon. Portuguese companies simply can’t survive paying the tax rates now imposed on them.

Read the rest:
www.marketwatch.com . . .

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