December 10th, 2009
Acronym of the day: PIIGS
Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that some bearish international investors have coined a new term for the countries that they believe are the weak links of the euro zone: PIIGS — which stands for Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain.
That follows on the heels of the oft-used term for the most important emerging markets — the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. And then there’s the less popular acronym for the dangerous, nuclear-armed states of Pakistan, Iran, and North Korea. That group is called, uh, never mind.
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7 Comments
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muller on January 14, 2010
ah ha, now I know
Dr. Dorothy Everts on March 2, 2010
Why isn’t Iceland one of the “I”s? — it almost went bankrupt last year…
kafoe on March 14, 2010
Iceland is not in the euro zone, it’s not even part of the EU (yet).
Uwe on March 15, 2010
How much did it cost to have a marketing company develop that phrase?
Paulo on May 4, 2010
and iceland and Uk? uk has the largest deficit in EU.
the correct name is ukpiiigs. sounds nice.
Gonz on May 6, 2010
The UK is part of the European Union but does not use the Euro.
The Pound is one of major reserve currencies in the world (USD, Euro, Yen, Pound).
I doubt the UK would ever give up the Pound for the Euro. It would be like America giving up American Football for Soccer.
Ricardo on June 13, 2010
Still Britain is already on the count. Now the name is something like:
PIIGGS
(Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Great Britain, Spain)
And soon, with Hungary, even if it doesn’t use the Euro, I’m already predicting the following:
PHIIGGS
XD