If I may slightly rephrase US President Bill Clinton: “It’s the growth, stupid!” I have one further comment regarding private debt now, which exceeded € billion, and now accounts for 113% of Greece’s GDP. The breakdown is as follows: NPLs: € billion, tax arrears: € billion, overdue insurance contributions: € billion.
7  On the other hand, recent research has pointed out the interesting possibility that the formation of a currency union, by promoting trade and economic integration among its members, may lead the criteria for an optimum currency area among the participating countries to be satisfied after the fact even if not before (Frankel and Rose, 2002).