Greece’s default is eminent, but it won’t be a catastrophe for the markets as they have become immune to bad news, according to Nick Parsons, the head of Research at National Australia Bank
“Technically the default is inevitable. There is another meeting at 11 March and we expect it will be a default”, he said. “It might even ultimately lead to Greece’s exiting from European Union itself”.Also Greece’s default is unlikely to cause a markets’ collapse as it has been feared. "Many of the derivative contracts which had been written upon default have already expired. A year ago it might have proved a catastrophe. In two weeks very little will come of it. The market is prepared for this”, Mr Parsons explained. The International Swap and Derivative Association (ISDA) says it won’t pay out insurance to Greece’s private creditors for the 100 billion euro they had to write off.Mr Parsons doesn’t expect Greece’s default to spread to Spain, Italy and Portugal, which are also troubled with debts.Parsons says, although EU officials are meeting regularly to discuss tough financial situations, their get-together don’t produce news that would have significantly effect the market. “I think we are in danger of summit overkill. There are too many summits, there too many of those meetings, where they don’t announce or achieve anything. It would be much better if they have more conference calls and to have more bilateral agreements,” he said