The economic situation of PIIGS countries before and after accepting the Euro

The thesis deals with the economic situation of PIIGS countries - Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain, from 1996 up to the present. The first chapter defines the process of economic monetary integration up to the current economic crisis. On the basis of macroenomic analysis the thesis endeavours to find basic causes of current problems in PIIGS countries and to define an occurence of imbalances and varience among these states and other members of the Eurozone. In the conclusion we can find a comparison of PIIGS countries, an evaluation of their development before and after adopting the Euro and an influence of inflation, exchange rate and other economic factors on inception of divergences within the EMU