Shock!? Greece is the second poorest country in Europe after Bulgaria, when it comes to purchasing power and the gross domestic product (GDP). According to Eurostat data released on Tuesday, Greece is second from bottom on the list with gross domestic product (GDP) at 33%, when the EU average is at 64%.
Bulgaria is at the bottom having registered the lowest GDP per capita, 36% below the EU average, followed by Greece (-33%) and Latvia (-29%).
💰 In 2023, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita expressed in purchasing power standards ranged between 64% of the EU average in 🇧🇬 Bulgaria and 240% in 🇱🇺 Luxembourg.
What about your country❓
Find out more 👉https://t.co/Plz6dwcwk8 pic.twitter.com/KuVSuaYWQZ
— EU_Eurostat (@EU_Eurostat) March 26, 2024
In 2023, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita expressed in purchasing power standards ranged between 64% of the EU average in Bulgaria and 240% in Luxembourg, Eurostat said on Tuesday.
This information comes from the flash estimates of purchasing power parities and GDP for 2023 released by Eurostat.
In 2023, substantial differences in GDP per capita expressed in purchasing power standards were recorded among EU countries. Luxembourg and Ireland had the highest levels (140% and 112% above the EU average, respectively), well ahead of the Netherlands (30% above the EU average), Denmark (+28%), and Austria (+23%).
Greece
We in Greece earn less than 2009 that is than 5 years ago and the impoverishment continues despite statements by the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister cheering every once in a while that Greece is breaking all records in the economy development.
It may have been some improvement in the last few years, but the reality does not lie: we are two-thirds below the average European income, prices in food and other essentials as well as in services and in real estate (purchase and/or rent) are on a daily rally and all these make the real life for the average Greek a … torture.
How did Greece come to be the second poorest country in Europe after Bulgaria in GDP per capita?
“The causes of impoverishment are more or less well known. When in all other European countries from 2010 until 2023, nominal wages were constantly rising, in Greece they were falling, in an attempt to eliminate deficits through internal devaluation. Somehow, the Poles, the Romanians, the Hungarians, citizens who have traditionally and for decades been considered poorer than the Greeks, have surpassed us. In their countries they talk about convergence with the European average. In Greece we cannot claim something similar,” notes new website thetoc.gr.
Investing only in tourism and in real estate acquisitions is not enough.
Productive investments are needed, increase of the average salary, new well-paid jobs, production and exports.
Europe and EU is not the same as you should well know and I’m positive that you do. So why having it objectively wrong here?
Shock horror, NOT, the banana republic stats keep rolling in .
A shopping trolley of food is more expensive than the UK,
Tourism makes up such a large part of Greece’s GDP it’s economic infrastructure is set up to cater to tourism and tourists not people that live and work in the country , actually I personally would be more worried about the disparity between rich and poor, currently sitting at revolution levels.
“A shopping trolley of food is more expensive than the UK,”
I’m not sure you can support that statement. It all depends on what you buy. Stick mainly to fresh items that are in season and I think Greece is a lot cheaper.
Some things are very much more expensive in Greece but others are much cheaper. Minced beef in the UK is a lot cheaper than in Greece but it is mainly fat and sweepings off the butchers floor. In Greece it is a lean piece of beef cut off a good quality joint and minced in front of you. Not exactly comparing like for like.
Eating out at a taverna is unbelievably cheaper in Greece. Depending on what I choose I typically get charged between €12 and €20 and that includes more wine than I really ought to drink and a 10% tip. When my son goes out in the UK it is usually around £40 to £50.
I can live a comfortable life in Greece on my pension income but I don’t think I could survive in the UK.
where and what do you eat in taverna for 12-20 euros?
I normally eat in a small group, say 5 of us. We would normally start by sharing a village salad but with Mezithra rather than Feta. Probably two or three starters to share such as grilled mushrooms, gigantes, kolokithokeftedes, anamikta. Sometimes we would then have a main course each such as mousaka, brizola, souvlakia, stifado or we might continue eating meze style with four or five dishes shared. Typically we would order a litre of wine and be given another litre on the house. A desert with raki would also be on the house.
When we eat meze style it is usually cheaper than when we each have a main course. In a fish taverna we normally order fish served by the portion such as gavros, sardella, kalimaria or octopus rather than fish served by the kilo. Obviously taverna prices are higher than shop prices for everything but why pay €50 per kilo for tsipouro when I can buy it in my local fish shop for €10 per kilo and cook it at home?
you clearly don’t live in a big city like Athens or Thess.
So, while people are discussing GDP per Capita, the sterile Greek economic model, the clientelism of the PM and his Gov. and the challenges Greek people is facing…you are talking about tzatziki, feta, potatoes and mushrooms….Every illness has a cure except stupidity..it stupifies he who tries
***thanx 4 ur delightful — to wit elaborate — insight, Warwick (notwithstanding the naysayers ever out + about, ostensibly)! ***Wil; (…myself an overseas Hellene whose folks R from the rugged mountains up north, moreover)
The resident rabbler sounds like a politician, “If you can’t afford to shop in a supermarket, grow vegetables on your balcony ” totally detached from reality, but amusing .