Greece had growth. Back in 2014. Everything was fine with the creditors, the unemployment was just 25% – from 27% the year before – the state was paying its suppliers and outstanding debts, consumers were spending money like there was no tomorrow and in addition there was also a primary surplus. Then, leftist SYRIZA with “creative and vague” Varoufakis came to power, and Greece sank back to recession and uncertainty.
Should we believe the Wall Street Journal reason for this return to the past is the slow progress in bailout negotiations between the new Greek government and the creditors. And not the international media frenzy claiming a Grexit was imminent.
Greek Economy Risks Slipping Back Into Recession, Say Analysts
Greece’s latest promise to repay its creditors on time has reduced fears about an imminent default but while the government lives from hand to mouth, the Greek economy is slipping back toward recession, businesses and analysts say.
Slow progress in bailout negotiations between the Athens government and its foreign lenders […] is spreading uncertainty […] last year emerged from a six-year recession that wiped out over a quarter of its gross domestic product.
Freeing up money to repay the IMF and other creditors, while also prioritizing the payment of pensions and public-sector wages, is forcing Greece to delay other domestic spending to make ends meet. Among the victims are suppliers to the public sector and businesses that are owed tax rebates, which aren’t getting paid.
Business and consumer confidence is suffering from broader uncertainty about whether the government will agree to the unpopular economic overhauls demanded by Greece’s creditors—the rest of the euro currency bloc and the IMF.
J.P. Morgan: “The macro environment is likely to continue to deteriorate until the political uncertainty and the liquidity situation (of the government) are resolved.”
Fabric retailer Kyriakos Elmanoglou: “The shop has been through many difficult phases over all these decades…but nothing can compare to what we are going through now.”
SEP, association of medical suppliers: Since December, when Greece’s latest bout of political uncertainly began, “every payment has frozen.” (full article Wall Street Journal)
Sorry, folks, but much to my knowledge tax rebates and tax returns to business and private persons have been “frozen” since last August, medical suppliers and pharmacists had always had to wait for a long time for their payments and creditors rebuffed Samaras’ austerity measures proposals last November and so on and so on.
Nice are the fairy tales even with dragons spitting fire…
PS as usual I am kind of lazy to go search for the growth and recession figures of 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010.
In this case, it pays to be lazy, you would be wasting your time. Unless of course, you believe in faerie tales…
Ferry tales?
it is the way to Haden!
you find the way in , in the Ionion Sea, in the near off Parga!
Is it so strange ? Who would invest in Greece now ? OK, it is about foreigners.
But Greek entrepreneurs … Would they decide to invest now ? When nobody knows what will happen with their bank accounts ? When nobody knows whether euro or drachma ?
Entrepreneurs are maybe unhappy, but what is good : Greeks are happy. Fun must continue. And this is positive.
In any case, I wanted to write: it is no fairy tale, it can be true. Business is easy to be frightened and to escape. The idea of an enterprise is to have a profit, and if there is no prospect of profit (according to the management of the business) – of course, it depends, maybe some businessmen felt that they have enormous prospects… .