This transnational credit pump created a phenomenal construction bubble that made the Spanish and Irish property experiences look tame by comparison. Spain and Ireland managed a paltry 6 and 8 percent annual growth in construction expenditures, respectively, in the 2000s. Romania was the laggard with 11 percent yearly increases. Bulgaria busted the curve with a near 20-percent-a-year increase. Therefore, while REBLL states busily cut their debt even before the crisis, their citizens and firms increased it exponentially in the form of nonproductive assets, on the back of weak exports and current account deficits, using foreign sourced cheap credit. All that was needed to make this whole system explode was a detonator—and the foreign banks provided that too.

Mark Blyth, Austerity, loc. 598