The acronym “PIGS” was first coined in the 1990s to describe Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain – four peripheral European Union states with the weakest economies. In 2008, it became PIIGS when Ireland was added after its banking crisis.

While the acronym became something of a slur among the nations themselves, investors continued to use it to label the nations whose economies were in a death spiral: over-indebted and unable to grow as the EU forced austerity drives in order to preserve the single currency.