US Unemployment May Hit 15% in 2010: Strategist

Unemployment can go as high as 12 to 15 percent in the United States next year, as the economic situation will get worse and more banks will go bankrupt, Nicu Harajchi, CEO at N1 Asset Management, told CNBC Friday.

"We expect the (unemployment) numbers to increase… we believe that going into the fourth quarter we are going to see increased unemployment and I also think that in 2010 we are going to see somewhere between 12 to 15 percent in the US," Harajchi told "Worldwide Exchange."

Liquidity will start being withdrawn from financial markets, making things more difficult, he added.

"We are very pessimistic on 2010 because this is when we think that all that liquidity that has been pushed into the markets by the central banks and by the Fed, at some point they're going to come and they're going to need some of that money back," Harajchi said.

Three banks went bankrupt in 2007, 25 in 2008 and this year the number of US banks that went bankrupt is nearly 100.

"We think that 2010 is going to be a much worse year," he said.

In Europe, the banking sector, which has rallied 162 percent since March, was among the top losers Friday on concerns over the growth picture.