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PIGS is an acronym used by the British and North American economic press to refer to four countries of southern Europe: Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain, but Ireland is sometimes listed in addition to or in lieu of Italy. Because of its offensive connotations, some news and economic organisations have denounced or banned the term.

History

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The acronym was first used in 2008 by some British and North American journalists to refer to the Eurozone countries with lagging economic performance in the preceding few years. They were perceived as lacking fiscal discipline and often ran large current account deficits, leading to concerns about the stability of the euro currency. Additionally, they tend to suffer from high unemployment.

Meaning of "I"

Shortly after being coined, an additional "I" was sometimes added to create the acronym "PIIGS", with the additional letter referring to Ireland. Some Italian banks (such as Unicredit) have suggested that Italy be replaced with Ireland in the original four letter acronym, and American commentator Pat Buchanan did so in a February 2010 column. According to Eric Nielsen, chief European economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in London, "Italy is in a more comfortable position than the other Southern European countries because of a stronger balance sheet."

Controversy

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The term has been actively denounced as an pejorative by the Portuguese Finance Minister, the Portuguese press and the Spanish speaking press

The Financial Times and Barclays Capital have banned the term as "offensive."

See also

• European Central Bank
• Enlargement of the eurozone
• Globalization
• Union for the Mediterranean
• BRIC
• Public debt

References

1. Von Reppert-Bismarck, Juliane (July 7–14, 2008). "Why Pigs Can't Fly". Newsweek.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
2. "Ten years on, beware a porcine plot". The Economist. June 5, 2008.
3. Reguly, Eric (December 23, 2009). "Bailing out PIIGS just encourages bad behaviour". The Globe and Mail.
4. "The ECB at ten: A decade in the sun". The Economist. June 5, 2008.
5. Gros, Daniel (January 28, 2010). "Greek burdens ensure some Pigs won't fly". Financial Times. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
6. "'I' in 'PIGS' is for Ireland not Italy, insist UniCredit staff". Irish Independent. February 6, 2010.
7. Smith, David (May 25, 2008). "Reform failures may still kill off the euro". The Sunday Times.
8. Buchanan, Pat (2010-02-09). "The Bankrupt PIGS of Europe". buchanan.org. Retrieved 2010-02-09. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
9. Totaro, Lorenzo (February 8, 2010). "The 'I' in 'Pigs' Stands for Ireland, Not Italy (Update1)". Business Week.
10. ^ Pigs in muck and lipstick, AFP September 15, 2008 Cite error: The named reference "portafolio1" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
11. Lavanguardia.es
12. Elmundo.es
13. ft.com

External links

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