Since the peak of the sovereign debt crisis in 2015, Greece has achieved an amazing economic rise. This happened thanks to a series of difficult reforms: the Greeks reduced pensions, extended working hours, restructured the administration and sold state infrastructure to private companies, including foreign ones. However, all this did not happen automatically: at first, barricades were regularly burned in Athens, and hundreds of thousands protested against the ruthless austerity measures imposed by international creditors. Back then, hardly anyone expected that in just a few years the country would catch up with the economic leaders of Europe, writes the German newspaper "Die Zeit" in an extensive publication on the subject.
Since the Covid pandemic, Greece's economy has consistently grown at a faster pace than the eurozone average. For example, last year it recorded a growth of 2.1%. The country has also drastically reduced unemployment: while during the crisis more than a quarter of the working-age population was unemployed, this figure has now fallen to below eight percent.
Weapon against populism
Ten years ago, the Ministry of Economy and Finance in Athens imposed austerity measures: civil servants were forced to implement reforms demanded of the country by international creditors, led by Germany. The ministry is now headed by Kyriakos Pierakakis, who does not want to give unsolicited advice to the Germans, but still says that the best response to populism is reform. And this is a lesson learned in Greece: the government must show citizens that reforms lead to tangible improvements in their daily lives, he tells "Die Zeit".
At the end of last year, Pierakakis was elected president of the Eurogroup – the Brussels-based body in which the finance ministers of the monetary union coordinate their policies. At the height of the crisis, it was unthinkable for a Greek to take up this post. The 43-year-old politician is considered an exceptional talent and a person who decisively tackles problems. For example, after his appointment as Minister of Digital Governance in 2019, he quickly created a single online portal for government services in Greece - gov.gr, through which citizens have access to over 2,500 services. For example, they can electronically arrange formalities related to birth, marriage, divorce or death, apply for driving licenses or start their own business. And at the same time regain trust in the state administration, the German publication adds.
"Digitalization has played a key role in improving the way citizens interact with the state. But it has also helped us generate higher tax revenues and stabilize our budget," says Pierakakis. Companies in the country now report electronically to the tax authorities, meaning that the latter no longer have to rely solely on inspections. As a result, tax evasion, which for decades was the biggest problem facing the Greek state budget, has become much more difficult. Thanks to this, and together with austerity measures and economic growth, Greece has begun to collect more money than it spends. The government can now repay loans early and reduce its debt burden, which remains among the highest in Europe - over 140% of GDP, recalls "Die Zeit".
When asked whether the "Troika" - the group of observers made up of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Commission (EC) and the European Central Bank (ECB) - was right, The Greek finance minister says: "We had to make very difficult decisions, but they paid off and put us in the position we are in today."
Today, Greeks can once again invest in infrastructure that supports their most important economic sector - tourism. For example, a new highway under construction, which should halve the travel time from Athens International Airport to the western coast of the Peloponnese. The tourism sector accounts for just under a quarter of GDP, including indirect effects. Since 2010, the number of foreign tourists has more than doubled - from 15 million to nearly 38 million, the publication further states.
The government is encouraging this boom by attracting wealthy investors through tax breaks. Not everyone in Greece is happy about this, however. Trade unions and the opposition, for example, ask what ordinary people gain from the influx of tourists. One possible answer is that this boom creates many jobs.
Despite the successes, however, public support for the government of conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is declining. Next spring, the country will hold parliamentary elections, and former player Alexis Tsipras, who was prime minister from 2015 to 2019 at the height of the crisis, is suddenly returning to the political scene. He founded a new party that is currently in second place in opinion polls.
"There is huge dissatisfaction among the population," says Pausania Papageorgiou, who was part of Tsipras's previous government. "Instead of providing relief to people during the energy crisis, the government is repaying debts early, even though the interest rates on them are very low. "With this policy, the government is encouraging a one-sided boom in the real estate sector, from which the wealthy benefit most," she notes.
Most people in Greece today are forced to pay higher rents or can no longer afford to buy a home, as property prices are skyrocketing. The differences between the different social classes in Greece indeed remain huge - a reality that is clearly visible in the country today, a decade after the debt crisis, the publication of "Die Zeit" also says.