ATHENS — Greece on Saturday concluded 12
years of
EU fiscal surveillance that was imposed in return for bailouts after a
crushing debt crisis.
اضافة اعلان
In November 2009, Athens revealed a sharp rise in
its public deficit that eventually led to a financial crisis across the
eurozone and wreaked havoc on Greek finances for a decade.
In exchange for bailout cash of 289 billion euros
and to stop Greece from crashing out of the eurozone, a “troika”, made up of
the International Monetary Fund, EU, and the
European Central Bank, demanded
across-the-board reforms from Athens.
These included deep state spending and salary cuts,
tax hikes, privatizations and other sweeping reforms aimed at righting public
finances.
The economy contracted by more than a quarter,
unemployment spiked to almost 28 percent and skilled professionals emigrated in
droves.
“A cycle of 12 years which brought pain to citizens,
led to economic stagnation and divided society,” has ended, Prime Minister
Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.
“A new horizon filled with growth, unity and
prosperity emerges for all,” he said. “The Greece of today is a different
Greece.”
“We have recorded strong growth and a significant
slide in unemployment of 3 percent since last year and 5 percent since 2019,”
he added.
Ending the oversight will strengthen Greece’s
international market position by increasing its attractiveness to investors.
Athens will also now have greater control over its domestic economic policy.
“The end of enhanced surveillance for Greece also
marks the symbolic conclusion of the most challenging period the euro area has
experienced,” Paolo Gentiloni, the European commissioner for economy, said in a
statement.
“The sovereign debt crisis that defined the first
years of the previous decade was a steep learning curve for our Union.
“Our strong collective response to the pandemic
indicated that Europe had learned the lessons of that crisis. We must show the
same solidarity and unity as we navigate the troubled waters our economies are
now entering.”
Greece — like fellow bailed-out EU members Spain,
Portugal, Cyprus, and Ireland — will still be monitored by its creditors while
paying back its debts.
In Greece’s case, that will take another two
generations, with the last loans due for repayment in 2070.
According to European Commission projections, the
Greek economy will grow by 4 percent this year, much higher than the eurozone
average of 2.6 percent.
However, Greece’s unemployment rate is one of the
highest in the monetary union, its minimum wage one of the lowest and the
country’s debt is 180 percent of gross domestic product.
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