Greek government-debt crisis

The Greek government-debt crisis (also known as the Greek depression)[3][4][5] started in late 2009. It was the first of five sovereign debt crises in the eurozone – later referred to collectively as the European debt crisis. In Greece, triggers included the turmoil of the Great Recession, structural weaknesses in the Greek economy, and a sudden crisis in confidence among lenders.

In late 2009, fears developed about Greece's ability to meet its debt obligations, due to revelations that previous data ongovernment debt levels and deficits had been misreported by the Greek government. This led to a crisis of confidence, indicated by a widening of bond yield spreads and the cost of risk insurance on credit default swaps compared to the otherEurozone countries – Germany in particular.[9][10] In 2012, Greece's government had the largest sovereign debt default in history.

On June 30, 2015, Greece became the first developed country to fail to make an IMF loan repayment.[11] At that time, Greece's government had debts of €323bn. On July 5, a large majority of Greek citizens voted to reject the bailout terms, which caused indexed worldwide to tumble, as many became uncertain about Greece's future. Following the vote, Greece's finance minister Vanis Varoufakis stepped down on July 6. On July 13, after 17 hours of negotiation, Eurozone leaders reached a provisional agreement on a third bailout program to save Greece from bankruptcy. On July 30, Tsipras stated he would continue to battle lenders to maintain their sovereignty.