This dissertation deals with current account deficits and public debt in the Euro area. The thesis is in three parts. In part one, I assess movements in relative prices which are necessary to achieve an output-neutral reversal of the current account deficits that arose in Greece, Italy, Portugal...

Since the mid-1990s, sustainability of large and persistent current account positions have been attracting much attention from policy makers and economists alike. Alongside global imbalances, sustainability of imbalances within the euro area, which started widening shortly after the introduction...