Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was confident that the times of recession were over and that “Greece has returned back to growth” as he told his cabinet ministers. However, the reality was not kind and the Greek Statistics Authority ELSTAT released short after Tsipras speech some shocking data: that recession is back and that there was no growth at all in the last quarter of the last year.
An essential discussion started today… there will be a period of consultations with the productive sector at a central level followed by a relevant procedure at local/regional level, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday said in a cabinet meeting about productive reconstruction.
The government’s aim is the best possible cooperation and consensus on actions to be determined.
“We are at a transitory phase; we need to break the vicious circle of the crisis and plan the next day with vision and inspiration,” Tsipras stated.
“I believe that this is the most important work of the goverment. To turn the vision of fair growth into practice and this will lead us to the exit from the crisis,” he said.
After seven years of recession, Greece has returned to positive growth rates he underlined.
He added that this dire reality forces us to plan the next day, because the next day is already here.
Referring to the technical staff level negotiation, he said that the economy has resisted and has recovered adding that the real challenge is not at technical level staff but in the grounds of real economy.
“We must open the consultation on the next day of the economy and that is the purpose of the current cabinet meeting,” said Tsipras noting that the return to the model of the past is can’t be our selection.
“Our goal should be the comparison with the developed economies,” he underlined.
He said, for example, that the deregulation of mass layoffs is a counter-reform and such reforms are only included in the agenda of main opposition New Democracy. For us, social welfare is the fair redistribution of wealth, everyone’s right for a decent and stable job and a sustainable social state, he stated.
The Greek prime minister underlined that despite the crisis, Greece remained in the hard core of Europe and is still an oasis of security and stability.
PM Tsipras said this short before 12 o’ clock noon on Monday, an hour later Greek Statistics Authority (ELSTAT) brought him back to reality.
Greece’s “economy shrank by 1.2 percent in October-to-December 2016 compared to the third quarter,” ELSTAT said and revised its previous flash estimate of a 0.4 percent decline.
As expected, opposition parties attacked the prime minister but the European Commission lent him a hand.
Spokesperson Annika Breidthardt said in Brussels “we continue to wait economic growth in Greece in 2017.” She added that the EC “takes notice” of the ELSTAT figures and stressed that these are “temporary figures of a quarter” and therefore not the year’s finals.
She reiterated the usual EU bureaucratic position in compliance with Germany and Finance Minister Schaeuble that the Greek debt was sustainable and the only problem of Greece were the reforms.
“As we made clear in our forecast, keeping the reforms momentum and the continuation of their implementation is necessary to boost growth and restore confidence,” Breidthardt said.
As for the finals, it is easy for the EU Commission to calculate them, once it has a pen and a piece of paper at hand.
According to ELSTAT, Greece’s GDP in 2016 has been:
Q1 -0.7% Q2 -0.4% Q3 +2% Q4 -1.1%
It is an issue of good will to find out and especially why.
And the incompetent little soldier of fortune keeps feeding us lies and false hope.