Greece Debt Crisis is all about the failure of Greece and its international creditors  on the issue of debt payment which raised fears  on exit of Greece from Eurozone.

The Greek government crisis started on late 2009, the root cause for it was basically the combination of  structural weaknesses in the Greek economy along with a decade-long pre-existence of overly high structural deficits and debt-to-GDP levels of public accounts.

On 29th June 2015, Greece failed to make a payment of 1.55 billion euro to the International Monetary fund(IMF), becomes the first advanced economy to default on a loan to the 188-nation institution.

After  the Greece Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis’s  final request of extending the Greece bailout was rejected by the creditors and customers to queued to withdraw cash , banks and  stocks exchanges are closed for the whole week.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras then called a referendum on 5th July 2015, on whether to accept the creditors’ demands, which could raise the risk that the country may exit out of the euro.

The Greek people, on 5th July 2015,  will vote whether they want to accept the EU’s further austerity measures in return for an additional €15.3 billion bailout which  has cast the country into uncharted waters. If they don’t then they must leave the Eurozone, known informally as a Grexit. Although 70% want to remain in the Eurozone, only 49%-57% of the Greek people want to stay in the EU if there are more austerity measures.

On July 1st 2015, in television speech, Greek prime minister  Mr. Tsipras asked for a “No” vote to the greek citizens in order to stop the austerity. But the European union(EU) has appealed the Greece people to vote “Yes” in the Sunday’s  referendum on its international bailout because a  “No” vote means  a choice to leave from the heart of Europe .

A Quick Summary

1. Greek failed to pay the loan payment to IMF on 29th June 2015.
2. On Sunday’s (July 5′ 2015) referendum , Greece future will be decided.
3. “No” vote means Greece’s exit from eurozone. As a result , rejection would trigger a currency and payment crisis, forcing the insolvent government. In order to prevent a quick economic death, Greek has to issue a parallel currency or to reprint the old “Drachma”.
4. “Yes” vote means Prime minister Tsipras resignation , further a new moderate government may takes place of him. A yes vote  also means Greek to accept a series of budget measures that  creditors proposed in exchange of loans.

Tidbits

• In Ancient Times, Greece was known as Hellas.
• Athens is the nation’s capital and largest city. Thessaloniki being the second largest and referred to as the co-capital.
• Greece is the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, the Olympic Games, Western literature, major scientific and mathematical principles, and Western drama.
• Prokopis Pavlopoulos is the current President of Greece.
• Greece has more archaeological museums than any other country in the world.
• Greece’s currency, the drachma, was 2,650 years old and Europe’s oldest currency. The drachma was replaced with the Euro in 2002.

Article Penned by Suhanee Shome.