> How does austerity (reducing government expenditures in order to control/safeguard public-sector debt) cause the end of a recession (shift from negative to po

> How does austerity (reducing government expenditures in order to control/safeguard public-sector debt) cause the end of a recession (shift from negative to positive GDP growth rate)? One of the key factors was that the national trade balance became net positive during the period, as the private sector was pushed to invest in exports, but I'm sure the issue is much more complex and can't be pinned down to a single cause. Nevertheless the undisutable fact is that the recession that started in 2008 and caused the then acting government to nearly bankrupt the state in 2011 with their record public spending push, piling yearly deficits of over 10%, ended in 2014 during the third year of the bailout program. That fact is somehow ignored by anti-austerity critics who insist that no recovery is possible when reality shows otherwise.