The Eurozone in the Trojan horse (a detailed study of Greece’s financial turmoil in the Eurozone) -

Abstract

The Greek debt crisis is one of the most troubling challenges that has faced the Eurozone since its creation. It has put the economical, financial and even social and political situation of the Union under enormous threat. The Greek debt crisis has been one of the most controversial topics under scrutiny and discussion for the past couple of years. This project sheds light on the Greek debt crisis; reasons, implications, consequences and the course of action taken by the Greek Government and the Troika (ECB, EU and IMF) to charter the course of action to exit from the crisis with the least damages. The project starts by looking at how Greece met the Maastricht convergence criteria to join the Eurozone and the benefits the country reaped from joining the currency area. Furthermore, it explores the reasons that mislead Greece into the crisis and subsequently examines the actions taken by the above mentioned bodies (Greek Government and Troika) as a reaction to the crisis trying to content the damage and prevent Greece from default which could have a domino effect on the Eurozone. This project tries to explore if the course of action taken was the optimal path to react to the crisis and what could have been done differently that could stimulate growth for the Greek economy and prevent the country from falling further into a recession. The project also highlights on economic data; GDP growth, government deficit, government debt, inflation, bond yields, interest rate spread, public wage, current deficit, balance of trade, twin deficits and additional economic indicators. Finally, the project concludes with highlighting some of the policy implications.