Published: January 31, 2024, 11:44am ET
A headline in a freely distributed Spanish newspaper on Wednesday summed up the surprising developments in Europe’s economy as “the return of the pigs”.
Its headline, “The Pig’s Revenge”, was based on the less obvious acronyms for Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, which appeared in mainly British newspapers in the late 1990s.
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A headline in a freely distributed Spanish newspaper on Wednesday summed up the surprising developments in Europe’s economy as “the return of the pigs”.
Its headline, “The Pig’s Revenge”, was based on the less obvious acronyms for Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, which appeared in mainly British newspapers in the late 1990s.
The issue resurfaced in 2008, at a time when debt was soaring across southern Europe, and a Financial Times article headlined “Pigs in the mud” shocked the Spanish media. It also sparked a diplomatic uproar, with Manuel Pinho, Portugal’s economy minister at the time, furious.
The acronym next appeared in 2012, when debt issues were again up in the air. The London-based Mining Journal advertised that the pig had been slaughtered. The report focused on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s warning that the euro was in trouble due to debt problems in many countries. The acronym was expanded to include Ireland, which was in deep trouble at the time, and PIIGS was born.
“PIGS” gloated about the reappearance of Spain’s free daily newspaper 20minutos on Wednesday, discussing how the unlikely hero Iberian nation contributed to stabilizing the eurozone economy in the final quarter of 2023. It gives off a great atmosphere. , averting a widely expected recession.
Unsurprisingly, Spain achieved the highest economic growth rate in the Eurozone during this period at 0.6%, while Germany, the economic engine of Europe, contracted by 0.3%, and France, the second largest economy, stagnated. Italy managed to expand by 0.2%.
“Southern European countries still remember that during the worst years of the Great Recession in 2008, the word ‘pig’ became popular to refer to them,” writes 20minutos’ reporter Jorge Millan. “Fifteen years later, this group is living out a kind of revenge. They have weathered the pandemic and war in Ukraine better than their northern neighbor. Still, the rifts caused by the Great Recession remain.” ing.”
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A cautious applause could be heard from the gloomy science corner.
“Spain’s strength has been a theme in recent quarters, with the Spanish economy benefiting from a combination of a recovery in tourism and particularly strong employment growth (partly reflecting the starting point of a slacker labor market). RBC Capital economists said in a note.
And there was also a clear warning:
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