PIGS

  PIGS: Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain

  PIIGS: with Ireland

  PIIGGS: with Ireland and the UK (Great Britain)

A graph showing the economic data from Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain (PIIGS), Germany, the EU and the Eurozone for 2009. The data is taken from Eurostat.

PIGS (also PIIGS^[1]) is a pejorative acronym used to refer to the economies of Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain. Since 2008, the term has included Ireland, either in place of Italy or with an additional I.

Originally, the term referred to Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, which were notable as similar economic environments. Since the European sovereign debt crisis, with the addition of Ireland, the term is used to group European economies facing particular financial crisis. Some news and economic organisations have limited or banned use of the term because of criticism regarding perceived offensive connotations.

History

The term has been used since at least the mid-1990s^[2] as an epithet^[3] referring to Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain noted for similar economic environments.^[4][5] The term became popularized by the wider media during the European sovereign debt crisis,^{[6][7][8][9][10][11]} alternatively used as a shortform for Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain.^[12][13][14]

The term was denounced as a pejorative by the Portuguese Finance Minister in 2008.^[15] Members of the international economic press continue to use the term.^{[16][17][18][19][20][21]} However, some organisations, notably the Financial Times (FT) and Barclays Capital, have restricted or banned^[22] the term.^[23]

Variations

With the onset of the Financial crisis of 2007–2010 several variations appeared.^[24] When rendered as PIIGS^[25][26] some commentators added the additional I for comparative purposes to include Ireland from the 2008–2010 Irish financial crisis, with alternatively the I which originally referred to Italy occasionally becoming an interchangeable reference to Ireland^[27] by some during this period. Other forms in use are GIPS,^[28] GIPSI,^[29] and GIIPS.^[30] A variant with three Is, PIIIGS also has been used, where the three i's represent Italy, Ireland, and Iceland.^[30][31] Additional permutations gained prominence during the 2009 United Kingdom bank rescue package period and into the 2010 European sovereign debt crisis as some commentators used numerous variations such as PIIGGS^[32][33] which includes the United Kingdom (Great Britain) for assorted political, economic, or social reportage and editorial commentary.^[34][35][36] CNBC has also used GIPSI to mimic the word gypsy.

See also

Europe portal

Look up PIGS, PIIGS, PIIIGS, PIIGGS, or GIIPS in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• BRIC
• BRICS
• CIVETS
• Credit crunch
• EAGLEs
• MIKT

References