Last year was supposed to be the make or break year for Europe's debt crisis. Neither happened.
That means the chronic uncertainty that investors grappled with for most of 2011 is likely to continue, if not intensify, in the first half of this year.
"There are a myriad of factors, both political and economic, that could hit confidence," said Grant Lewis, head of research at Daiwa Capital Markets in London. "Given this backdrop, continued uncertainty is inevitable."
Despite an explosion of political summits last year, there is still no definitive solution to the crisis, which has become the single biggest threat to the global economy and the bane of financial markets around the world.
While a break-up of the euro currency union still seems unlikely, investors are not willing to rule out the nightmare scenario completely.
"The chances of break-up remain low, but non-negligible for sure," said Lewis. "That is not something that we would have said 12 months ago."
Eurozone leaders have taken steps toward a more binding fix for thepolitical and economic problems at the root of the crisis. But they have yet to put the measures into practice, something that has proven difficult because of competing national interests. Read more at CNN Money...
No comments:
Post a Comment