The Future Of The Greek Economy

economy

The future of the Greek Economy is almost impossible to predict with the continuous rise of debt. What Greek economy needs is the sustainable growth, and even though the referendum asking the Greek people to stay in the euro zone might have been a good way out of the brinkmanship, the payments to the International Monetary Fund have been missed. Therefore, European funding has ended.

As a result, these tactics in so many ways brought particular uncertainty which caused the Greek economy to hit the wall. It opened many questions for people. They are questioning paying taxes, suppliers, wages, and loans, and they are also focused on the issue how to pay for all these. What are the consequences if they decide to stop paying for all these responsibilities and what will they get in return if they abandon them?

These are the questions that Greeks continually ask themselves, and it becomes a nightmare for them while they still fight to meet ends with their current incomes. Banks in Greece are facing growing lines of depositors who are trying to withdraw their euros since there are no other ways to withdraw or exchange money. ATMs have no cash to provide, and if they do the exchange rate are incredibly high.
The similar situation was in Brazil during the early 1990’s as well as in Argentina at the beginning of this century, which made these countries to enact similar desperate policies as we can see in Greece. However, the experience of these countries and their bank holidays, capital controls and default are, unfortunately, not encouraging in any way. It is often considered that these countries successfully managed to escape further consequences, which is a mistake. In reality, a boom in service which helped Argentina to set its economy on the course was not made before the country was forced to face extreme hardships. The imports in the early stages after the crisis were incredibly expensive, medicines could be hardly found, the income of many citizens was cut by a third, and vulnerable groups of people suffered the most. However, 15 years later the economy in Argentina continued to decay with many people experiencing those hard times once again.

As it is already mentioned, the Greek society and economy need sustainable growth for the future. Their view that monetary sovereignty is wise choice did not consider that the government which tries to save them cannot be of the same type as the government that has driven the country to the edge. Furthermore, Greeks have also neglected the action for better tax collection, as well as better infrastructure and business climate.

There is also another important issue which makes the whole crisis situation even sadder, and that is the fact that the Greek people are still eager to be a part of Europe, while Europe wants them in the European Union. Unfortunately, the promises made by the government that the life in Greece will soon continue as usual are impossible to be granted. However, there are still things that could be concerned and improved in order to create a position where the government will be able to make such promises.
The path towards stability is very long, and hard as well, with many projects and initiatives to be performed. The recent statistic shows that some progress has been made. Even though those are not some considerable changes, they should be praised and acknowledged. The unemployment rate is going down, even though by 2020, analysts still expect a large number of unemployed. The inflation rate is also expected to make a significant drop which would further improve the socioeconomic situation. Experts also believe that the government’s debt to GDP should also decrease in the period that comes. Hopefully, the debt burden on the back of the whole country will not continue to rise again, which would change the statistics, both current and the future one in many ways.

It is necessary to plan the strategy that will keep the young generations in the country offer them the chance to build the future economy of Greece. Slightly less than a half of youth are unemployed, and the statistics are not bright when this issue is concerned. According to experts, the youth unemployment rate will rise in the first three quarters of 2017. Retirement age being at 67 will change to 68 according to the data of current situation.

With the Europe´s focus on other policies and issues, such as terrorist attacks, refugees and Brexit consequences, Greece is left on its own to fight with the problems it alone is unable to solve. Therefore, these analyses are the most optimistic outcomes for the future period, unless the country is provided with some better solutions on their path to stability and recovery.