"More cuts were needed to avoid exiting the eurozone"

This quote by Lucas Papademos is describing the financial crisis in Greece in 2011. At the time, Greece was facing a serious financial obligation crisis and remained in danger of leaving the eurozone, the economic and monetary union of 19 European nations. Papademos was the Prime Minister of Greece at the time and was advocating for more austerity steps to be taken in order to prevent exiting the eurozone. These steps consisted of cutting public spending, raising taxes, and decreasing salaries. Papademos knew that these procedures would be out of favor and hard to carry out, however he thought that they were necessary in order to avoid Greece from leaving the eurozone. Ultimately, the austerity steps achieved success and Greece had the ability to remain in the eurozone.