27 Statistics About The European Economic Crisis That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe

The economic crisis in Europe continues to get worse and eventually it is going to unravel into a complete economic nightmare.  All over Europe, national governments have piled up debts that are completely unsustainable.  But whenever they start significantly cutting government spending it results in an economic slowdown.  So politicians in Europe are really caught between a rock and a hard place.  They can't keep racking up these unsustainable debts, but if they continue to cut government spending it is going to push their economies into deep recession and their populations will riot.  Greece is a perfect example of this.  Greece has been going down the austerity road for several years now and they are experiencing a full-blown economic depression, riots have become a way of life in that country and their national budget is still not anywhere close to balanced.  Americans should pay close attention to what is going on in Europe, because this is what it looks like when a debt party ends.  Most of the nations in the eurozone have just started implementing austerity, and yet unemployment in the eurozone is already the highest it has been since the euro was introduced.  It has risen for 10 months in a row and is now up to 10.8 percent.  Sadly, it is going to go even higher.  As economies across Europe slide into recession, that is going to put even more pressure on the European financial system.  Most Americans do not realize this, but the European banking system is absolutely enormous.  It is nearly four times the size that the U.S. banking system is.  When the European banking system crashes (and it will) it is going to reverberate around the globe.  The epicenter of the next great financial crisis is going to be in Europe, and it is getting closer with each passing day.
The following are 27 statistics about the European economic crisis that are almost too crazy to believe....
Greece
#1 The Greek economy shrank by 6 percent during 2011, and it has been shrinking for five years in a row.
#2 The average unemployment rate in Greece in 2010 was 12.5 percent.  During 2011, the average unemployment rate was 17.3 percent, and now the unemployment rate in Greece is up to 21.8 percent.
#3 The youth unemployment rate in Greece is now over 50 percent.
#4 The unemployment rate in the port town is Perama is about 60 percent.
#5 In Greece, 20 percent of all retail stores have closed down during the economic crisis.
#6 Greece now has a debt to GDP ratio of approximately 160 percent.
#7 Some of the austerity measures that have been implemented in Greece have been absolutely brutal.  For example, Greek civil servants have had their incomes slashed by about 40 percent since 2010.
#8 Despite all of the austerity measures, it is being projected that Greece will still have a budget deficit equivalent to 7 percent of GDP in 2012.
#9 Greece is still facing unfunded liabilities in future years that are equivalent to approximately 800 percent of GDP.
#10 In the midst of all the poverty in Greece, several serious diseases are making a major comeback.  The following comes from a recent article in the Guardian....

The incidence of HIV/Aids among intravenous drug users in central Athens soared by 1,250% in the first 10 months of 2011 compared with the same period the previous year, according to the head of Médecins sans Frontières Greece, while malaria is becoming endemic in the south for the first time since the rule of the colonels, which ended in the 1970s.

Spain
#11 The unemployment rate in Spain is now up to 23.6 percent.
#12 The youth unemployment rate in Spain is now over 50 percent.
#13 The total value of all toxic loans in Spain is equivalent to approximately 13 percent of Spanish GDP.
#14 The GDP of Spain is about 1.4 trillion dollars.  The three largest Spanish banks have approximately 2.7 trillion dollars in assets and they are all on the verge of failing.
#15 Home prices in Spain fell by 11.2 percent during 2011.
#16 The number of property repossessions in Spain rose by 32 percent during 2011.
#17 The ratio of government debt to GDP in Spain will rise by more than 11 percent during 2012.
#18 On top of everything else, Spain is dealing with the worst drought it has seen in 70 years.
Portugal
#19 The unemployment rate in Portugal is up to 15 percent.
#20 The youth unemployment rate in Portugal is now over 35 perce
27 Statistics About The European Economic Crisis That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe