In February 2012, Iran stopped exporting crude oil to Greek refiners, claiming they were lagging in payments, though Iran has halted shipments of oil to France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom since that time over economic sanctions by western countries. While the Greek economy grew by almost 4% each year between 2003 and 2007, Greece was hard hit by the global financial crisis and has struggled to recover. The government has instituted austerity measures in an effort to reduce the deficit, which has exceeded EU standards of no more than 3%. Austerity measures helped to reduce the deficit from a 2009 high of 15% of GDP to about 9% in 2011.
Giorgos Nissiotis/AP Photo
