I am indeed very keen to know whether Greece is turning the misery page and swimms towards its economic recovery, or we’re just waiting around the corner with our nose in the air scenting the atmospheric high moving towards Greece. Or not.
Here in the sun-kissed but debt-ridden country, we have been bombarded in the recent last two weeks about an euphoria that ‘things finally started to go better”. The finance minister expressed hope and belief in Greece’s recovery to come one and a half year later. Prime minister Antonis Samaras returned from China full of optimism about the common economic and investment-promising perspective between the two countries. In near or far future.
On the other hand, the man on the street obviously live on a different planet of our galactic system. We still hear of people losing their job or of employees being unpaid for several months despite the work they have already performed -full or part time. We also hear the permanent complaint coming from people who cannot pay utility bills or the tax office. And see shops closing down, one after the other.
There seems to be a growing gap between Samaras’ government achievement and the real Greek economic life. A gap lurking to swallow the man on the street.
While I ‘ve been contemplating on the real government achievement and the average real life in Greece, there came an opinion article in Bloomberg taking under the maglifying glass exactly the same issue: political euphoria and real life. Of course, the author’s arguments are based more on statistics and arithmetics and less in real life stories of real people and real destinies.
While columnist Megan Greene shares KTG’s doubts about the promoted euphoria, she notes among others:
“It is undeniable that there are signs of hope coming out of Greece today, where there were none six months ago. There is always the chance that Greece can fake it until it makes it, capitalizing on these small pieces of good news to instil confidence in investors and households, until a real recovery takes hold. Undermining the confidence fairies, however, are economic fundamentals that indicate the recent euphoria is a bit overdone.”
I wish, somebody could define “signs of hope” for me.
‘hope ‘o a politican means ‘that the worker is not rioting and some are actually paying a little tax so thinks are IMPROVING [same in ireland]
Signs of hope
– for once, the slice of buttered toast with marmalade lands buttered side up on the carpet
– there is light at the end of the tunnel and the trains are on strike
– a politicians says “I don’t know” and means it
– there has been no upbeat politician on any chat show or news broadcast for at least 4 hours
– a bank gets fined for money laudering
– your 5 year old remembers to take his mucky shoes off before coming in
– extra choc-chips in the ice cream
– your teenager agrees it was a stupid thing to do
– I don’t burn the dinner, again…
– You wake up and it all was indeed just a bad dream
….
Hmm… Current account balance minus 2 or 3 % – it means you are near to export the same as to import. Probably it was the biggest problem – Greece imported much more than exported (including capital transfers).
Primary surplus – with new debt reduction there is a chance to equilibrate your budget, one more important thing.
“Investors are returning to Greece, lured by receding fears that the troubled country will leave the euro and the high returns offered by many of its battered assets.” Somebody is buying Greek bonds again..
Still extreme unemployment – but unemployment goes behind the economy… Still nightmare of people becoming poorer…
But this time there is maybe hope that this will end soon. Choosing Samaras , Greece decided to continue with euro – you could not use devaluation , which makes everything easy in other countries. Because with devaluation , everything becomes cheaper, wages, prices and export moves up (and the current account balance improves in some days). I cannot assess whether it was right or wrong, but the end of nightmarish going down can be near.
So there is hope…