Greece joined the eurozone on Jan. 1, 2001. The country wasn't regarded as qualified enough for the eurozone when the union was established in 1999 but it was officially invited in June 2000 and it became the 20th country to accept the euro currency.
Within this process, it tried to reach its targets on price stability and public finance to prove it had a healthy economy.
The Greek government confessed on Nov. 15, 2004 that they underreported budget deficit data between 2000-2003 to fulfill economic conditions to join the eurozone. While the budget deficit is supposed to be below 3 percent to join the eurozone, the Greek economy minister announced that budget deficits had been above this rate since 1999.
International credit rating agency Fitch downgraded Greece's credit rating from "A-" to "BBB+" in Dec. 8, 2009. That was the first time that Fitch downgraded a country's rating to below A in the last decade. Then-Economy Minister George Papaconstantinou warned that the budget deficit in 2009 could reach 12.5 percent of the gross domestic product. This rate which was above expectations, causing other rating agencies to downgrade Greece's credit rating.
In March 3, 2010, the Greek government approved a heavy austerity package including pay cuts in the public sector, freezing pensions, tax increases in prices of tobacco, alcohol and fuel. Labor unions organized protests against those measures in Athens.
IMF and eurozone countries fearing that the fragile economic situation of Greece would jeopardize Europe agreed on a financial aid package valued at 110 billion euros in May 2, 2010. Greece agreed to make more cuts as a part of the deal, which sparked fierce reactions among the Greek people. Greece has received two financial aid packages valued at 240 billion euros since 2010.
European leaders decided to decrease Greece's debts on Oct. 26, 2011 because of the country's ongoing economic problems. Private investors decreased 50 percent of the Greek bonds and turned them into new loans.
George Papandreou who came to power in October 2009 had to deal with the financial crisis during his time in office. After two years, Papandreou resigned from his office on Nov. 11, 2011 and a coalition government was established.
Greece returned to the bond market in April 10, 2014 after four years and investors were happy about it. Although it was too early, some thought that high demands in five-year bonds were the beginning of the end of the rescue operation.
Having been governed by the New Democracy Party, Greece slid into chaos when Stavros Dimas, the presidential candidate of then Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, failed to win the required number of votes on Dec. 29, 2014. An early election was said to be held in October and the popularity of left-wing political party Syriza caused concerns about the future of the economic rescue.
Syriza, which opposes the economic rescue, won the elections on January 25, 2015 and surprisingly established a coalition government with the Independent Greeks Party from the right wing. The Greek people were happy about Syriza winning the elections since it aimed to get rid of austerity policies. However, the election results caused concern among international investors because of the possibility of Greece leaving the eurozone.
Greece provided reform offers before the debt payment due date. Therefore, economy ministers of the eurozone decided to extend the due date by four months in January 2015. The reform offer included keeping public spending under control and taking tight measures against corruption. Greece was given due dates in April and June to make payments to its different creditors; however, it hasn't made any payments so far. Eurozone finance ministers declined to extend the rescue program on June 27, 2015.
