Imbalances in the euro area  The imbalances which have accumulated over the last few years in the euro area are the result of a combination of “good” and “bad” convergence. The so-called good convergence concerns the levels of per capita income. At the start of EMU the per capita income levels between countries differed significantly.
Among the countries that joined the euro area in 1999 and 2001, three – Spain, Greece and Portugal – were considered “cohesion countries”, i.e. countries that qualified for very sizeable structural support from EU funds to speed up their convergence to the European average per capita income levels.