This year saw the Eurozone go to the brink of collapse and
it still hasn’t fully recovered. The issue was over the level of government
debt, most worryingly in the “PIIGS” countries, the less than complimentary
acronym for Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain. The turbulent year for
the economies of Greece and Italy pushed out their heads of government and
replaced them with non-elected technocrats. Many people feel that this
threatens the Western ideal of democracy. Within a year of each other Ireland,
Greece and Portugal all had to ask for bailouts from the EU/IMF to keep their
economies afloat. Greece was constantly in our news especially in the latter
half of our year as the country tinkered towards the edge of the abyss.
2012 will be an interesting year for Europe, each economist
predicting different scenarios ranging from a complete Euro breakup to a
tighter “Euro Compact” of the stable northern countries or just with a few of
the peripheral countries leaving. It is difficult to tell what will happen in
2012, but nonetheless it will be a make or break year for the Eurozone.
A map of Europe
Red indicates Eurozone members
Blue indicates non-Eurozone members of the EU
White indicates European countries not in the EU
Grey represents non-European countries
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