Greece

Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in southern Europe. Since late 2009, investors ’concerns over the sovereign debt crisis have gradually increased. They worried that Greece would not be able to meet its debt obligations due to rising government debt levels. This led to a crisis of confidence, which was manifested by the expansion of borrowing costs and the spread of bond yields. Greece ’s debt was downgraded to junk bonds in April 2010, which caused widespread panic in the financial markets. Then the euro area countries and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to provide 110 billion euros in aid to Greece. In February 2012, Greece received another 130 billion euros in bail, on the condition that Greece must implement a strict austerity policy, and Greek bondholders must agree to restructure their debt.