CONCEPT – GREECE SOVEREIGN DEBT CRISIS

Excellent study material for all civil services aspirants - begin learning - Kar ke dikhayenge!

CONCEPT – GREECE SOVEREIGN DEBT CRISIS

---

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

---

• End of Greece bailout period, 2018: Greece emerged from a tough and controversial bailout programme that came with years of austerity (spending cuts).
• The whole process:

1. In 2008 the world's worst financial crisis (started from the US housing market) in almost 80 years caused a global recession. Many European nations had huge government debts but Greece was worst affected, with a major spending deficit. It had borrowed much more money than it was able to make in revenue through taxes (poor fiscal vision).
2. In 2010, Greece revealed its sky-high deficit and was frozen out of bond markets, as its ability to stay afloat was under question. Practically, the nation was bust.
3. So, Greece asked for a financial rescue by the European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Bailouts came.

• What are Bailouts? These are emergency loans aimed at saving sinking economies – and Greece’s bailout began in 2010. It received three successive packages, totalling €289bn ($330bn), but they came with austerity measures.
• Citizens paid the price: For many Greeks - especially the young - the years of economic hardship were severe. People's despair turned into riots on the streets, as they suffered spending cuts, high taxes and repeatedly slashed salaries and pensions. More than 4 lac Greeks emigrated. At the height of the crisis, some worried that the eurozone - the 19 countries that shared the euro - would collapse alongside Greece. But that never happened
• What about 2018? Three-quarters of Greeks think the bailouts harmed the country. The economy is 25% smaller than when the crisis began and it will take decades to pay off its debt pile of 180% of GDP. But for the first in almost a decade, Greece is off life support. The economy has stabilised and grown slowly and it can borrow on international markets again.
• The road ahead: Greece has to repay the debts now, through its revenues. With an ageing population, it is not going to be easy.

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

---

---

---

---

• Ithaca is an island in the Ionian Sea in Greece, which was an important setting in one of the most famous myths of ancient Greece, the Odyssey.
• The main hero of the story, Odysseus, lived in Ithaca and was its rightful ruler. Homer described it as being "low-lying" and farthest to the west, despite being mountainous, and the island of Kefalonia being even more to the west.
• Odysseus was one of the suitors of Helen, the most beautiful woman in the known world. Foreseeing that the situation would not lead anywhere, as there was a multitude of suitors and Tyndareus was unable to choose a husband for her in fear of offending them, he made a proposal to him. He said that if Tyndareus would help him win the hand of Penelope, then he would provide a solution to the problem. He then told all of the suitors to swear an oath, which was hence named the Oath of Tyndareus, according to which no matter who Helen would pick for her husband, they would all support the couple. Everyone agreed and Helen chose Menelaus, king of Sparta. Odysseus then took Penelope for his bride and went back to Ithaca.
• After Helen's abduction by Paris and before the Trojan War started, Odysseus was told by an oracle that if he went to the expedition to retrieve Helen, he would not return home for decades. So, he originally pretended to be insane, but his plan was foiled and he was forced to join the Greek army against the Trojans. After the Trojan War, which lasted ten years, it took him another ten years to return home, facing multiple adventures in the process.

---

---

Join UPSC Self Prep course | Online Course (PT Gurukul)  | Covid Special Course | Join PT courses

* Content sourced from free internet sources (publications, PIB site, international sites, etc.). Take your own subscriptions. Copyrights acknowledged.