ACADEMIC ESSAY ON THE FINANCIAL CRISIS IN GREECE2IntroductionSince the era of ancient Greece austerity has always been of a point of attraction of thepolitical and economic arguments. Presently the term austerity is used to refer to the instance ofreducing public spending. However, a group of researchers have argued that using the term issuch a leads to a misconception and the main rationale of austerity remains unfocused. Theseresearchers have pointed out the main rationale of austerity as to reinstate the financial conditionof the government in order to achieve economic competitiveness and efficiency (Alogoskoufis,2012). Accounting for austerity in the context of public sector accounting has not been givensufficient attention by researchers especially in Greece the country which is most harshly treatedby the EU. This paper depicts a series of challenges and critical implications of austerity policiesfor public sector accounting (Mertzanis, 2011). Austerity has been used as a measure to solve thesovereign debt crisis of Greece. The financial crisis came into the center of attention of theinternational market after the October, 2009 elections. The fiscal deficit of the country worsenedmore with the passage of time and the same happened with several other countries within theEurozone (Maggina, 2011). However, after a few years of significant economic growth during2009, Greece entered into a situation of prolonged recession and has not been able to completelycope with the situation till date. Policy makers decided to use austerity as a measure to solve theeconomic crisis in the country but failed miserably. In this context it is argued that the sovereigndebt crisis of Greece is a multi-dimensional concept for which a one-dimensional measure ofausterity was not substantial. The key purpose of this paper is threefold, firstly, it will try tounveil the problems for which the government decided to call for an urgent bailout, secondly, itwill determine the gap between the ex-ante and ex-post austerity measures and finally the paperwill shed light on why a one-dimensional austerity measure failed. This research paper will

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Evaluating Austerity Measures and Debt Crisis

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