PIGS (economics)

PIGS is a derogatory acronym that has been used to designate the economies of the Southern European countries of Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain.

At the time these five EU member states were struggling to refinance their government debt or to bail out over-indebted banks.

However, taking on the guarantee of banks' debt, the Irish government budget deficit rose to 32% of GDP in 2010, which was the world's largest.

[11] After the crisis started in 2008, Karim Abadir used the term GIPSI to reflect the sequencing he believed would take place.

[1][20][21][22] PIGS is considered a racist framing that was utilized to blame South European populations for the general economic crisis, thereby legitimizing austerity measures and sovereignty losses.