Financial Times: Greek economic miracle with the country… the poorest in Europe

Dystopian is the presentation made of the Greek economy by today’s publication of the Financial Times, which initially mentions the significant recovery of our country, after the memorandum period, with an increase in GDP, which also brings a significant reduction in public debt, somewhere 162% of GDP for 2023. Also in 2023 we had a GDP increase of 2%, and the same is predicted for this year, while the evaluations our country receives from international houses are positive.

But the issue is that this progress is taking place after a huge recession since 2009 – when the financial crisis appeared – so despite the upward trend, our country appears today the… 2nd poorest within the European Union (counting it per capita GDP in purchasing power units), but also poorest within the Eurozone. As Greece is at a GDP 19% lower than in 2007 (before the crisis).

Thus we have the phenomenon that our country “sunk” abruptly and significantly, and then recovered but at a relatively slow pace, so other countries such as Romania, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Portugal etc. to have overtaken us. While Bulgaria, today “poorest of all”, is on a continuous rise and is preparing to overtake us.

The Financial Times also emphasizes that a large part of our income is due to tourism, where, however, the risk of climate change is already appearing (which makes life difficult in the summer months, with rising temperatures and lack of water), while of course the great falling births and our chronic demographic problem plus the departure of many young people from the country in search of better opportunities abroad, contribute to the reflection on our development.

The above findings of the FT are of course not new, but – our comment – show the vulnerability of our economic development which remains subject to seasonality (tourism, exports of agricultural products), with a permanent lack of working personnel and above all with skills, with an aging population and with a weak social “safety net” (e.g. with the downgrading of the NHS), with a lack of industrial base, with geopolitical instability in our region, as well as with a lack of know-how, innovation and investment in research and development.

In other words, issues that are directly related to our ability to maintain “national security”, not only in the obvious way, i.e. the “weapons purchase”, but as a more general requirement for a prosperous and robust national space.