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Impacts of the Financial Crisis on the Eurozone

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Submitted By sandrahdc110591
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The sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone, also called euro crisis of the Euro area, is a series of events that have affected negatively from the beginning of 2010 to the 16 European Union member states that make up the Eurozone, that have adopted a single currency and interweave a multinational monetary union within the EU. During this period the states of the Eurozone have been suffering a crisis of confidence without precedent, with speculative attacks on government bonds of various members, turbulent financial and stock markets and a falling exchange value of the single currency, in a context of uncertainty and difficulty to reach a collective agreement that still persists. In this paper, I will discuss some of the impacts that the crisis had over the Eurozone countries. In the last 6 months, the Euro had depreciated around 6 percent, making the exchange rate $1.38/€. This depreciation has caused an improvement in the European exports and a decrease in price for the imports in petroleum. The Euro/Dollar exchange rate touched a minimum on June 2010, when the rate is $1.19/€, and it touched a maximum on May 2011, when the rate was $1.48/€. According to an article from the Financial Times, “the first beneficiaries of a weaker euro are the countries of southern Europe whose difficulties have been putting the future of monetary union in doubt. Greece has been the focus, but Spain, Portugal and Italy also face a sharp loss of competitiveness”. Greece is the country that will benefit more from the depreciation of the Euro, because it will help to complement the fiscal consolidation. Also, it will boost Greek exports to the rest of the world (since the Euro has depreciated, Greek goods are cheaper than in the rest of the world) and Greece depends a lot from its exports outside the Eurozone (around 56 percent according to Financial Times), especially from tourism, which

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