And, with a high degree of uncertainty about the future, businesses and households preferred to be conservative, reducing debt and spending and avoiding future commitments. The government sector, on the other hand, faced a prospect of accumulating debt as tax revenues fell and spending demands increased.
Of course there are some countries in which structural reforms are urgently needed. If you look at OECD 2013 report about the responsiveness to their recommendations for structural reforms, the stressed countries are at the top and other euro area countries are below the euro average: France, the Netherlands, also Germany.