Economic Crisis and Structural Reforms in Southern Europe: Policy Lessons

The Eurozone debt crisis was, for the most part, a crisis of the European periphery and in particular of the European south. Southern European countries underwent, with varying intensity, a serious and prolonged economic crisis. Many of them (Greece, Portugal and Cyprus) had to resort to bailout agreements, which entailed the implementation of comprehensive economic adjustment programmes, while Spain negotiated a more limited and targeted financial package for its ailing financial sector, at the price of the latter’s comprehensive restructuring. Even countries that did not enter a financing agreement, like Italy, came under intense pressure to adjust their economies.