1.1. For this exercise, you need to locate GDP and debt data for euro-area countries. Use the EU Commission’s Annual Macroeconomic (Ameco)

Online database

(http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/db_indicators/ameco/index_en.htm

a. Extract data on real GDP (“constant prices”) for the euro-area countries. Which five countries saw their GDP decline most during the euro crisis? By how many percent did GDP decline before it started to grow again? (Hint: start with the last year after 2009 in which GDP did not fall relative to the year before and end with the last year before GDP grew again.)

b. According to the EU Commission’s data and forecast in the Ameco database, when has/will the GDP level of those five countries have reached again at least the precrisis level?

c. Now locate the debt-to-GDP ratio in the Ameco database.

Compute by how much this ratio has changed for each euro area country between 2009 and 2014. Can you see any correlation between this change in the debt level and the depth of the crisis which you have computed in question a?