More defaults on horizon

TOKYO: Several countries are likely to default on their debt in coming years and investors will force the US to pare spending, said Kenneth Rogoff, an economics professor at Harvard University.

Following banking crises, "we usually see a bunch of sovereign defaults, say in a few years. I predict we will again," Rogoff, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, said at a forum in Tokyo.

He said financial markets will eventually drive interest rates higher, and European countries such as Greece and Portugal will "have a lot of troubles". Global scrutiny of sovereign debt has risen as nations including Greece reveal fiscal deficits that have swollen in the wake of the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression.