In this paper, sound public finances under the euro means sustainability in the long term instead of short- and medium …-term fiscal discipline. The challenges to sustainability are identified for the four largest euro area member states, and several … resort for a euro area government under liquidity shortage to prevent it from developing into a general financial crisis …

/methodology/approach: We formulated the following hypothesis: Depreciation of the Euro versus American dollar exchange rate occurred in the … period of financial and fiscal crisis (2008-2014). The main reasons for that included: fiscal crisis in the euro area …, implementation of standard and non–standard (quantitative easing) ECB monetary policy measures and growth of money supply in the euro …