How worried should investors be about Europe's 'high risk' Southern economies?

Now the UK's Brexit referendum is old news, Europe's troubled peripheral economies are once again under the spotlight as political deadlock in Spain and Greece's growing debt burden cast a shadow on their recovery prospects.

Although the UK's decision to exit the European Union in June did little to dent the economies of Spain and Greece, with exports from the two countries to the UK accounting for a mere 2.2% of EU GDP, the countries remain vulnerable and events this summer show there is little chance of this changing soon. What is the long-term impact of Brexit on global markets? Significantly worse off is Greece where the government is still struggling to bring down its debt pile, which stands at 180% of GDP more than a year after the Greek crisis was declared over. The country was forced to agree y...