Meanings
PIIGGS1
- economicsPortugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Great Britain (UK) and Spain, grouped on the basis of their high indebtedness during the European sovereign debt crisis.
The collective term — with permutations such as PIIGGS to include Ireland and Great Britain among the list of debt-ridden countries — has been denounced by politicians in Portugal and Spain.
2010 August 4, Sebastian Tong, “PIGS, CIVETS and other creature economies…”, in Reuters2 more examples
The so-called contagion of the public debt crisis among the PIIGGS countries (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Great Britain and Spain) worries Washington and Tokyo, the deepest in debt non-European governments.
2010, P Deaconu, “The Impact Of The Financial Crisis On The Currency And The Monetary System”, in Annals of Spiru Haret UniversityUnlike in 2008, now it is no more just PIGS that drag the EU down. The PIGS club has now expanded, with Ireland first, and ironically, Great Britain next, as the newly qualified members of the PIGS, making it PIIGGS (adding another ‘I', for Ireland and another ‘G', for Great Britain).
2010 May 26, S. Gurumurthy, “Too small is ‘too big' to fail”, in Business Line - The Hindu
PIIgGs2
- pluralplural of PIIgG
Cite this entry
PIIGGS. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/PIIGGS
“PIIGGS.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/PIIGGS. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “PIIGGS,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/PIIGGS.
Source: PIIGGS on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.