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Europe’s deepening debt crisis Eurostat, Europe’s statistics agency, revealed in August that the economies of both the euro zone and the European Union, which has 27 countries, shrank by 0.2 percent in the second quarter of the year.
Spain
Two Romanian migrants look for paper to sell in a recycling container in Madrid. Spain’s economy did worse in 2011 and 2010 than previously estimated, the National Statistics Institute said Aug. 27, adding to the gloom surrounding the country as it struggles to emerge from recession and avoid a sovereign bailout. Spain has already sought a loan of up to $125 billion from its 16 euro-zone partners to help some of its banks that are laden with soured real estate investments following the collapse of the property sector and the onset of the financial crisis in 2008.
Daniel Ochoa de Olza
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AP
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Portugal
Japanese tourists Shinya and Saori Fujimaki check their tickets, which were canceled during a train drivers’ strike at Lisbon’s Santa Apolonia train station, in mid-August. Portuguese train drivers are striking to protest economic austerity measures taken by the Portuguese government due to a $96 billion bailout in 2011.
Francisco Seco
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AP
Greece
A pedestrian walks past euro-crisis-themed graffiti in Athens. Greece’s troika of international creditors, the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund, will return to the Greek capital in early September to assess progress as the government seeks to hammer out billions in budget cuts for 2013 and 2014.
Angelos Tzortzinis
/
Bloomberg News
Netherlands
A woman bicycles past land that was meant to be used for a big housing project in Lansingerland. The euro-zone crisis is washing over the walls of one of the region’s safest havens. So far the Netherlands, a founding member of the European Union and a fiscal hawk along with neighboring Germany, has been spared the dramatic collapse of property prices associated with southern European countries such as Spain. Now, though, four years after the global financial crisis first hit, the economy is on the brink of another recession. Steadily sinking property prices are exposing a deep Dutch weakness: unpaid mortgages.
Michael Kooren
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Reuters
Italy
A woman sleeps in front of a closed shop window in Rome. Europe is edging closer to recession, dragged down by the crippling debt problems of the 17 countries that use the euro.
Gregorio Borgia
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AP
France
French President Francois Hollande speaks to the media with German Chancellor Angela Merkel shortly before talks at the Chancellery on Aug. 23 in Berlin. The leaders met to discuss the debt crisis and, in particular, the request by the Greek government that Greece be allowed more time to fulfill its financial reform requirements.
Sean Gallup
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Getty Images
Greece
Tourists walk next to the ruins of the 5th century B.C. Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion. Greece held its biggest debt sale since its economy imploded two years ago as it raised $5.01 billion in short-term debt to pay off a bond due next week.
Petros Giannakouris
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AP
Spain
Government employees protest against cuts at the government delegation in Barcelona. The Spanish parliament approved in July parts of an austerity package that includes cuts in pay for civil servants. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is fighting to prevent Spain from becoming the latest and biggest victim of the economic crisis.
Manu Fernandez
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AP
Germany
Workers build Ford Fiestas at a Ford factory in Cologne, Germany. Germany's economy, Europe’s largest, grew a larger-than-expected 0.3 percent in the second quarter as consumer spending and strong exports helped stave off effects of the euro-zone debt crisis, the Federal Statistical Office said Aug. 14.
Frank Augstein
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AP
Greece
Tilemachos Karachalios, a Greek former pharmaceutical salesman, looks through the window of a metro train in Stockholm. Karachalios is one of thousands fleeing Greece’s record 23 percent unemployment and austerity measures that threaten to undermine growth.
Casper Hedberg
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Bloomberg News
Greece
Striking Greek bank workers chant anti-government slogans during an Aug. 3 protest against government privatization plans in central Athens.
Thanassis Stavrakis
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AP
Spain
Railway workers hang flags over the tracks in protest against the government’s privatization plans at Sants railway station in Barcelona. The one-day strike on Aug. 3 coincided with the departure of many for their summer holidays.
Manu Fernandez
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AP
Greece
A bus passes the remains of a fountain made with Olympic rings and graffiti-defaced marble blocks that were originally dedicated to Greek Olympic medal winners, at the former Olympic village on the northern fringes of Athens. After the Athens 2004 Games, the village was used as a worker housing project. Eight years after the Athens Games, many of the venues remain abandoned or rarely used, focusing public anger on past governments as the country struggles through a fifth year of recession and a debt crisis that has seen a surge in poverty and unemployment.
Thanassis Stavrakis
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AP
Italy
A pedestrian passes a tourist souvenir store in the coastal resort town of Sperlonga, Italy. The country’s economy shrank for a third straight quarter in the first three months of 2012 as the debt crisis worsened and Prime Minister Mario Monti’s austerity measures pushed the country deeper into the recession.
Alessia Pierdomenico
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Bloomberg News
Italy
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti speaks during a news conference with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in Madrid. Monti said that Italy risks a public backlash that could lead to an anti-euro government in the region’s third-biggest economy should European policy makers fail to bring down borrowing costs.
Angel Navarrete
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Bloomberg News
Portugal
A woman walks past a board placed outside a fire brigade’s headquarters near Lisbon. The sign reads in Portuguese: “Help the firefighters. Park here for only one euro per day.” Firefighters are angry about spending cuts introduced by the government in last year’s international bailout for Portugal. Among a raft of cost-saving measures, the government is no longer paying fire brigades to take non-urgent patients to medical appointments. Fire chiefs claim the cuts have left them short-staffed and with outdated equipment. The government has entered into talks over the austerity measures with the Portuguese Firemen’s League, which has threatened to strike in September unless its demand are met.
Francisco Seco
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AP
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