PIGS is an acronym used in economics and finance. The PIGS acronym originally refers, often derogatorily, to the economies of the Southern European countries of Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain. During the European debt crisis, the variant PIIGS, or GIPSI, was also increasingly used to refer to the economies of Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain, EU member states that were unable to refinance their government debt or to bail out over-indebted banks on their own during the crisis.