Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Alexis Tsipras of Syriza upon his election as Prime Minister in 2015. PA Images

Eight years and €289 billion later, Greece exits its final bailout today

The country is not out the woods though and its people are still feeling austerity.

AFTER YEARS OF tough austerity measures, Greece today emerges from its third and last bailout, although officials warn the country still has a “long way to go”.

The European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund loaned debt-wracked Greece a total of €289 billion in three successive programmes in 2010, 2012 and 2015.

The economic reforms the creditors demanded in return brought the country to its knees with a quarter of its gross domestic product (GDP) evaporating over eight years and unemployment soaring to more than 27%.

But Greece has now returned to growth, its once vast public deficit has been turned into a solid budget surplus, and the jobless rate has fallen below 20%, officials say.

“For the first time since early 2010 Greece can stand on its own feet. This was possible thanks to the extraordinary effort of the Greek people, the good cooperation with the current Greek government and the support of European partners through loans and debt relief,” said Mario Centeno, board chairman of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) in a statement.

“It took much longer than expected but I believe we are there,” Centeno added.

Greek households, however, continue to feel the effects of unpopular and stinging austerity.

“The reality on the ground remains difficult. The time for austerity is over, but the end of the programme is not the end of the road for reform,” EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said at the weekend.

No backtracking

Moscovici’s opinion is shared by Greece’s central bank governor, Yannis Stournaras.

“Greece still has a long way to go,” Stournaras said in an interview with the Kathimerini newspaper.

He warned that if Greece backtracks “on what we have agreed, now or in the future, the markets will abandon us and we will not be able to refinance maturing loans on sustainable-debt terms”.

He also expressed concern that “if there is strong international turbulence, either in neighbouring Italy or Turkey or in the global economy, we will face difficulties in tapping markets”.

The Greek government estimates its financing needs are now covered until the end of 2022, opening up room for it to plan its return to the capital markets.

May Day 2018, Greece Protestors at a May Day rally in Athens. PA Images PA Images

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who is expected to hail the end of the bailouts with a televised address tomorrow, said in June after the agreement by the eurozone ministers to put an end to the rescue programme that Greece could start focusing on a “social state”.

“Now we have the opportunity to proceed with targeted reliefs, to proceed with tax reduction in 2019 and to support the social state and welfare,” he said.

The country may have achieved budget surpluses — excluding debt repayments — of around four percent in 2016 and 2017, but its hands remain tied on social welfare spending.

Greece has already legislated for new reforms for 2019 and 2020 and will remain under supervision for several years.

euronews (in English) / YouTube

‘Shackles still on’

The improving economic indicators are not yet translating into tangible improvements in the day-to-day lives of Greeks.

“The bailout is over, but the shackles and the asphyxiation are still on,” the opposition-friendly Vima newspaper wrote yesterday.

Economics professor Nikos Vettas believes it is “imperative” to generate “very strong growth” in the coming years. Otherwise, “households that are in a very weak position due to 10 years of cumulative recession will continue to suffer”.

Greece, however, has gained some credibility among the international community.

“The commitments assumed by Greece for the future are clear. I have no doubt that they will be respected,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told Greek newspaper To Vima, insisting that the country’s bailout exit was a “great success”.

© – AFP 2018

Author
View 85 comments
Close
85 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute DN
    Favourite DN
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 7:27 PM

    I lived in Rotterdam for 11 months abd the Baja beach club used RFID chips for patrons and members. Keeps the trouble makers away. Only a matter of time before we’re implanted with these for everyday use like banking, social welfare etc.. George Orwell saw it coming a mile off :)

    48
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Carroll
    Favourite Ryan Carroll
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 7:35 PM

    George Orwell saw no such thing. He saw a mass surveillance state, not RFID chips.

    Do you really think people will agree to having stuff plugged into their body when they can get the same thing with a plastic card in their wallet? come off the f__g stage with that tin foil hat bulls!t

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute DN
    Favourite DN
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 8:02 PM

    B–lshit? Well people did and still do have these chip planted into their wrists. You ignorant fool! Look it up! My Orwell comment was aimed at the orwellian state which will happen someday hopefully not my lifetime. Tin foil is good for wrapping my samdwhiches. Not so good for hat making. C U Next Tuesday.

    35
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joseph Siddall
    Favourite Joseph Siddall
    Report
    Jul 31st 2014, 2:43 AM

    Thousands of pets are already microchipped to allow cross-border travel. Very simple procedure. Unlikely to get to the human population anytime soon, but it is surely a government’s wet dream to be able to track its citizens. The old “nothing to hide – nothing to fear” malarkey. Some day, perhaps.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Glen
    Favourite Glen
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 6:34 PM

    How long before humans are chipped ?

    39
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute IrishGravyTrain
    Favourite IrishGravyTrain
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 6:46 PM

    Put tinfoil on your head and around your balls and you’ll be sorted.

    25
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Glen
    Favourite Glen
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 6:53 PM

    Oh stop with the tin foil BS
    It’s been extremely well documented that the powers that be want to use chips in people for ID, banking, buying and selling, medical history ect. Two company’s in California have been working on the technology for years they already use it in animals
    It’s only a matter of time before it’s used in humans.

    39
    See 10 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ablitive
    Favourite Ablitive
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 6:54 PM

    As soon as Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama gives the go ahead…

    41
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Carroll
    Favourite Ryan Carroll
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 7:09 PM

    It being on the Alex Jones show is not the same as ”being documented”, it’s been discussed as a conceptual thing not a serious proposal, and it would never fly as a mandatory thing anyway.
    We have Micheal Myers loose in the house slashing at us with his knife, and you are worried about the boogey man in your dreams.

    The EU is not coming for you, the Bilderbergers are not coming for you, it was not a cruize missile that hit the pentagon…the only big brother threat that’s real is the NSA and the 5 eyes system.
    Calm down.

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Glen
    Favourite Glen
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 7:17 PM

    There are dozens of ” Alex jones types” who have written and lectured about this …. Google is your friend check out the company’s that manufacture them before making an ill-informed comments.

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Carroll
    Favourite Ryan Carroll
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 7:33 PM

    Glen Google is not research, Generation Y seems to fatally confuse the two.

    Research is finding facts and evidence, google will get you anything but. A google search can find you ‘evidence’ to confirm any crack pot theory you like. There are 1000s of internet pages explaining in painstaking deatail what explosives were put into the towers and how, why a cruize missile hit the pentagon, that JFK was killed because he signed an executive order about gold.

    You’re getting worried about a phantom threat that does not exist.

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall H
    Favourite Niall H
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 7:35 PM

    It was not a airplane that hit the pentagon either

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Carroll
    Favourite Ryan Carroll
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 7:39 PM

    Oh dear…..

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Carroll
    Favourite Ryan Carroll
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 8:05 PM

    The plane was seen by 100s of people with the naked eye as it clipped lights on it’s way across to hit the building.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall H
    Favourite Niall H
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 8:32 PM

    I agree with most things you say on this site Ryan as you speak a lot of sense but I honestly think you need to open your eyes on this one.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Carroll
    Favourite Ryan Carroll
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 8:39 PM

    Niall…people…saw…the plane…crashing …into …the building….I have a relative who personally saw the damn thing heading towards the building from their office.

    Just because it did not punch a cartoonish airplane shape into a reenforced concrete building resistant to attack (the physics of it folds the wings back into the fuselage and the fuselage is more liquid than solid when it’s crashing.

    It’s not about opening my eyes, I’m quite open, go on the appliances story, where the very same people up-ticking your conspiracy theory are down-ticking something that is factually indisputable, and you will see how open minded I am. But I’m a scientist, I believe in evidence forming a hypothesis and then further evidence leading to a logical conclusion.
    There is not a shred of evidence that anything other than a plane hit the Pentagon.
    All the red thumbs in the universe won’t change that.

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall H
    Favourite Niall H
    Report
    Jul 31st 2014, 12:18 AM

    Well….then….maybe……I’ll……use….all….the…..full….stops….in….the….universe…

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mark Oman
    Favourite Mark Oman
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 7:19 PM

    I like chips

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Roche
    Favourite Paul Roche
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 10:33 PM

    It would appear that those who comment using “tinfoil hat” as a derogatory term for those who despair of the Big Brother effect on privacy really have no clue about how technology has made it easier for government to track citizens.

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Carey
    Favourite Paul Carey
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 6:29 PM

    Nice to know they’re ‘ensureing’.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall Ó Cionnaith
    Favourite Niall Ó Cionnaith
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 6:25 PM

    Very snazzy.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gerald Santucci
    Favourite Gerald Santucci
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 6:55 PM

    These 2 EN will inform and protect the European citizens while at the same time building trust in the technology, hence supporting market take-off (which is less significant in Europe compared to other world regions). A process of 8 years that involved ALL stakehoders.

    4
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds