After the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), which is a reference to those emerging economies which will have a global influence even bigger in the next decades, it’s time for a new acronym, much more “offensive”.

PIGS is a new acronym that has emerged to describe the delicate situation that the European Union is going through. (PIGS = Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain). Each of these countries are experiencing severe economic difficulties and there is a widespread fear that this may result in a new economic crisis that would affect all European Union countries.

Although there is a variation on “I” of the PIGS (some think the “i” refers to Italy, others to Ireland), the fact does not change, the crisis is serious and needs to be tackled quickly.

The budget deficit of Portugal (9.3%), Ireland (12%), debt of $ 300 billion of Greece and the high unemployment in Spain (the country suffered serious effects due to the crisis, after years and years of strong growth motivated by a real estate boom which has since imploded.) are signs that these economies can infect others, something that is already being reflected in major stock exchanges in the world. In the Italian case, government debt is equivalent to the annual GDP.

The fact is that the lack of fiscal discipline in these countries may end up with the global early recovery after the crisis of 2008. And if nothing is done, a darker world could emerge soon.

Image Credit.

Via: The Guardian.