Eurozone bailout programme is finally over

THE eurozone passes an important milestone on 20 August. The date marks the formal end of the bailout of Greece.

It is the final country to be receiving emergency loans in the wake of Europe's financial crisis.

The last payment has been made and the Greek government will have to finance its spending through taxes or by borrowing in the financial markets, though it will be decades before it is all repaid.

Five countries received bailout loans - Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus - and at the most intense points of the crisis there were genuine doubts about whether the eurozone would survive, or at the very least whether some countries would drop out.

It has been a long haul for the eurozone, it has been eight years since the first bailout for Greece was agreed. This was a case of government spending running far ahead of what it could raise in taxes, and after a change of government in Athens it was revealed that the deficit was even larger than initially reported.

The origins of the crises were different in other countries. In Spain and Ireland it was a construction and property market boom that was financed by banks which then suffered heavy losses when the booms ended.

In Portugal it was more a case of weak economic growth that undermined government tax revenue.