I.

INTRODUCTION
The Eurozone crisis has been going since 2010. It has affected a number of the
Eurozonecountries and resulted in a general economic downturn in the European Union
member states. The Eurozone crisis has long-term and short-term causes. Long-term causes
include structural problems with certain European economies, such as a lack of
competitiveness or bloated public sectors, as well as the nature of the common currency
system. Many have argued that this common currency system was not complete, and
therefore unable to withstand massive external shocks. Short-term causes are related to
external shocks to the European financial markets that resulted from the 2008-2009 finacial
crisis that originated in the United States.
The global financial crisis started with the bursting of the housing bubble in the US,
where people had been able to get mortgages in their houses at very low interest rates even
if they had low credit ratings and poor prospects for being able to pay back their loans. This
meant that even people who had trouble paying their credit card bills were trusted with
borrowing large sums of money. Many ended up being unable to pay off these subprime
mortgages and the housing bubble burst. In the summer of 2007, several hedge funds,
including Europen ones that were invested in subprime mortgages in the US, collapsed.
Many European banks had to cut back on their lending, which reduced consumption and
investment. Likewise, the housing boom was reversed in most developed countries. The
financial crisis led to a global economic recession.
In 2008, the cost of lending between banks was very high and central banks,
including the European Central Bank, had to intervene. At the same time, some member
state government had to borrow money in order to bail out their banks and stimulate their
economies, since the higher unemployment and the lower profitability of businesses during
the recession had lowered their tax revenues. Because these government had to run fiscal
deficits to pay for this, their public (sovereign) debt increased.
At first, one Eurozone country, Greece, could not borrow money on the capital
markets as the Greek debt was seen as unsustainable and, thus, interest rates were
increased. Greece has been passing austerity measures periodically since early 2010 in
order to curb its deficit and receive bailout loan packages from the Eurozone and the
International Monetary Fund (IMF). This austerity has sparked strikes, riots, and a failed
attempt to form an anti-austerity government.
A contagion effect led to investors demanding higher returns on Italian and Spanish
sovereign debts, meaning that these countries had to pay higher interest on loans, which in
turn caused them to adopt fiscal austerity measures and structural reform in order to reduce
budget deficits and improve economic competitiveness. The EU and IMF also agreed to a
bailout package to Ireland in November 2010 and to Portugal in May 2011. Since June 2012,

Spain has been talking of requesting a bailout, and one is on track for its banks. As well, in
February 2011, Eurozone finance ministers set up a permanent bailout fund, called the
European Stability Mechanism, worth about 500B. Finally, in 2012, the EU (except for the
United Kingdom and the Czech Republic) signed an intergovernmental fiscal pact for new
rules that would make it harder to break budget deficits.

II.PROBLEMS
Belgium experienced macroeconomic imbalances, which require action and policy
monitoring. Developments relating to the external competitiveness of goods continue to pose
a risk and deserve attention as new damage would threaten macroeconomic stability. Further
measures to ensure the convergence of cost parameters will slow decline in employment in
the tradable sector, while real progress to narrow the cost gap could be strengthened by a
shift of historic tax on the tax base of non-employment. Public debt remains high, but several
factors temper associated macroeconomic risks.
Double tendency of the current account deteriorated and alarming loss of export
market share continues. Orientation towards less dynamic, geographically close export
markets and declining cost competitiveness continues to drive this trend. While the
composition of the product is considered as a contributor to a more neutral, specialization of
the product lies in the middle range of the value chain has not been able to compensate for
those losses. A further expansion of the innovation scope and a deeper penetration of
technology in products remain therefore crucial to reconcile sustainable job creation with
Belgium's high labor costs. Net international investment position is very positive to mitigate
the risk of deteriorating external position.
Labor costs are considered to play an important role in the decline in external cost
competitiveness. Particularly manufacturing activities are confronted with the consequences
of rapid wage growth on their ability to compete internationally, as reflected in eroding
margins and the destruction of jobs. The Belgian authorities have done several steps to
prevent the gap from widening in relative wages, although the effects will only be realized
slowly while the scope of the challenges identified calls to urge a heightened sense of
urgency. As a result, effectively narrowing the gap in order to preserve the Belgian
manufacturing base would require action more ambitious and timely, including the
improvement of the long-awaited tax with the rebalancing of the non-taxation of labor and
wage formation made more responsive to economic realities and sectoral differences.
Public debt remains high, around 100% of GDP, but a number of risk factors related to
macro-economic and government action to prevent further increases since last year.
Contingent liabilities related to guarantees provided to the financial sector has been reduced,

but the level remains sizeable (12% of GDP), which involves the risk of spill-over from the
financial sector to the government sector. Most of the Belgian public debt is foreign-owned,
which in the case of financial stress in the country will further strengthen the negative
feedback loop. The current low funding costs and the risk of fiscal stress in the short term
appears limited due to the relatively long average maturity of public debt. However, a
sustained period of higher interest rates will have a big enough budget costs, complicates the
gradual return to a balanced budget. Macroeconomic risks associated with high public debt
levels have been anticipated by the healthy state of the private sector: the net asset position
of households is very positive and the debt of non-financial companies is relatively contained
when excluding inter-company loans. In short, while the government carries a large debt, net
asset position of the economy Belgium (+ 45% of GDP) compared with the positive negative
net asset position in the euro area (-24% of GDP)

III.
IV.
V.

THEORY
GRAPHS
SYNTHESIS

http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/occasional_paper/2014/pdf/ocp172_
en.pdf

Krisis zona euro telah berlangsung sejak 2010. Ini telah mempengaruhi sejumlah negara
zona euro dan mengakibatkan penurunan ekonomi secara umum di negara-negara anggota
Uni Eropa. Krisis zona euro memiliki penyebab jangka panjang dan jangka pendek.
Penyebab jangka panjang termasuk masalah struktural dengan ekonomi Eropa tertentu,
seperti kurangnya daya saing atau sektor publik kembung, serta sifat dari sistem mata uang
bersama. Banyak yang berpendapat bahwa sistem ini mata uang umum tidak lengkap, dan
karena itu tidak dapat menahan guncangan eksternal yang besar. Penyebab jangka pendek
terkait dengan guncangan eksternal ke pasar keuangan Eropa yang dihasilkan dari 20082009 krisis finacial yang berasal dari Amerika Serikat.
Krisis keuangan global mulai dengan pecahnya gelembung perumahan di AS, di mana
orang-orang telah mampu mendapatkan hipotek di rumah mereka pada tingkat bunga yang
sangat rendah bahkan jika mereka memiliki peringkat kredit yang rendah dan prospek miskin
untuk dapat membayar kembali pinjaman mereka . Ini berarti bahwa bahkan orang-orang
yang mengalami kesulitan membayar tagihan kartu kredit mereka dipercaya dengan
meminjam uang dalam jumlah besar. Banyak akhirnya tidak mampu untuk melunasi ini
subprime mortgage dan gelembung pecah perumahan. Pada musim panas 2007, beberapa
hedge fund, termasuk yang Europen yang diinvestasikan dalam subprime mortgage di AS,
runtuh. Banyak bank-bank Eropa harus mengurangi pinjaman mereka, yang mengurangi
konsumsi dan investasi. Demikian juga, booming perumahan terbalik di sebagian besar
negara maju. Krisis keuangan menyebabkan resesi ekonomi global.
Pada tahun 2008, biaya pinjaman antar bank adalah bank yang sangat tinggi dan tengah,
termasuk Bank Sentral Eropa, harus turun tangan. Pada saat yang sama, beberapa
pemerintah negara anggota harus meminjam uang untuk menyelamatkan bank-bank mereka
dan merangsang ekonomi mereka, karena pengangguran yang lebih tinggi dan profitabilitas
yang lebih rendah dari bisnis selama resesi telah menurunkan pendapatan pajak mereka.
Karena pemerintah ini harus menjalankan defisit fiskal untuk membayar ini, publik
(sovereign) utang mereka meningkat.
Pada awalnya, satu negara zona euro, Yunani, tidak bisa meminjam uang di pasar modal
sebagai utang Yunani dilihat sebagai tidak berkelanjutan dan, dengan demikian, suku bunga
meningkat. Yunani telah melewati langkah-langkah penghematan secara berkala sejak awal
2010 di orer untuk mengekang defisit dan menerima paket pinjaman bailout dari zona euro

dan Dana Moneter Internasional (IMF). Penghematan ini telah memicu pemogokan,
kerusuhan, dan upaya untuk membentuk sebuah pemerintahan anit-penghematan gagal.
Sebuah efek contagion menyebabkan investor menuntut pengembalian yang lebih tinggi
pada utang negara Italia dan Spanyol, yang berarti taht negara-negara ini harus membayar
bunga yang lebih tinggi pada pinjaman, yang pada gilirannya menyebabkan mereka untuk
mengadopsi langkah-langkah penghematan fiskal dan reformasi struktural untuk mengurangi
defisit anggaran dan meningkatkan ekonomi saing. Uni Eropa dan IMF juga setuju untuk
paket bailout ke Irlandia pada bulan November 2010 dan Portugal pada Mei 2011. Sejak Juni
2012, Spanyol telah berbicara untuk meminta bailout, dan satu berada di trek untuk bankbank. Selain itu, pada bulan Februari 2011, menteri keuangan zona euro menyiapkan dana
bailout permanen, disebut Mekanisme Stabilitas Eropa, bernilai sekitar 500B. Akhirnya,
pada tahun 2012, Uni Eropa (kecuali untuk Inggris dan Republik Ceko) menandatangani
antar "pakta fiskal" untuk aturan baru taht akan membuat lebih sulit untuk memecahkan
defisit anggaran.