Roubini’s Das: Spain Needs a Bailout ‘Sooner or Later’
Spain will eventually need a bailout, as its heavy private debt burden is increasingly weighing on sovereign debt levels, Arnab Das, managing director of market research and strategy at Roubini Global Economics, told CNBC.
“All these plans about recapitalizing the banks with public debt, or taking care of the regions…The problem is people are starting to get to grip with the fact that there is too much debt in Spain,” Das told CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange”.
“It is not yet in the sovereign, but that is where it is heading. That is why there is going to be a bailout sooner or later for Spain,” he said.
On Friday, Spain’s fourth-largest bank, Bankia requested a 19 billion euro ($24 billion) bailout from the Spanish government. The government is expected to recapitalize the troubled lender using Spanish sovereign bonds , which Bankia can then use as collateral in order to tap European Central Bank funds.
Roubini said the Spanish sovereign will remain vulnerable, irrespective of whether Greece exits the euro zone after its second round of elections on June 17.
“A Grexit could, if it is disorderly, accelerate the process in Spain. But even if we don’t have something untoward in Greece, Spain has its own demerits and is going to suffer from that,” he said.
Das works alongside Nouriel Roubini, the economist famed for predicting the 2007/08 financial crisis.
— By CNBC's Katy Barnato