Real convergence of per capita income levels has not occurred among the original euro area members since the advent of the common currency. Income convergence stagnated in the early years of the common currency and has reversed in the wake of the global economic crisis.
In contrast with countries in the core of the eurozone with high GDP per capita and relatively low unemployment led by Germany, countries in the periphery, of which four have had to undergo year-long economic adjustment programmes, have large debt burdens, high unemployment rates and experienced drastic declines in their standards of living as a result of austerity measures which dampened economic activity and increased social hardship undermining economic and political stability.