Island Greece

Greece is in the far south of the Balkan peninsula, Greece combines the towering mountains of the mainland with over 1,400 islands, the largest of which is Crete.
Post-World War II Greece saw rapid economic and social change, with tourism and shipping becoming major contributors to the economy.
The financial crisis of the late 2000s hit Greece particularly hard, as the legacy of high public spending and widespread tax evasion combined with the credit crunch and the resulting recession to leave the country with a crippling debt burden.

Greece has more than 1,400 islands

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At a glance

• Politics: After inconclusive elections in May 2012, a further round of voting in June restored a shaky coalition of the advocates of austerity measures
• Economy: Enormous debts have sent Greece into deep recession. Multi-billion-euro bailouts from the EU and IMF are conditional on tough austerity measures
• International: Greece calls for the restoration of a unified state in Cyprus. It is involved in a naming dispute with Macedonia

Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring

In the spring of 2010, amid fears of an imminent default on debt payments and of the debt contagion spreading to other countries, Greece's fellow eurozone countries agreed an unprecedented 110bn euro package to rescue its teetering economy. The main condition attached to the loan - drastic cuts in public spending and tax hikes - prompted protracted social unrest.

The 2010 rescue package soon proved to be unequal to the task of plugging the hole in Greece's finances, and the following year an even bigger bailout of 130bn euros was required to stave off the imminent danger of the country defaulting on its debts