The Greek Crisis: A Chronology of Events

The Greek Crisis: A Chronology of Events
Panagiotis Liargovas
Department of Economics, University of Peloponnese, Greece

Spyridon Repousis
Department of Economics, University of Peloponnese, Greece

This paper shows that the Greek crisis was the result of chronic and sustainable fiscal and external imbalances. High fiscal deficits, high ratio of government debt to GDP, high current account deficits and low competitiveness characterized economy. The triggering mechanism of the crisis was the arrival of the global economic recession in October 2008. Political instability, two national parliamentary elections during the crisis, revelations about real level of debt and downgrading of Greece's creditworthiness, led to two bailout loans, followed by strict fiscal adjustment, structural reforms and austerity measures. In the future, reducing uncertainty is a key factor to economic stabilization.