Anni horribili : the years that changed Greece

At the end of 2009, Greece became the spark that lit the flame which threatened the structure of the entire eurozone. The revelation of the country’s alarmingly large deficit set in motion a chain of events that culminated in the first bailout of a eurozone country in May 2010 as Greece gradually lost access to international financial markets. The loans from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund were accompanied by strict policy conditionality, along with drastic austerity and a host of structural reforms. The first bailout, however, proved to be insufficient to return the country to markets; a second one became necessary in 2012, accompanied by the first debt haircut to take place in a eurozone country. It was followed by a third bailout in mid-2015, at the end of a tumultuous six-month period during which Greece’s exit from the eurozone was narrowly averted. By the end of the third bailout in 2018, the economy was growing again, but Greece had paid a heavy economic, political and social price