Steven Petrov
The Paw Print
Greece has been one of the European countries with the largest amount of international debt, accumulated over the last 3-5 years. The world’s financial crisis of 2008 hit the Greeks’ economy and destroyed the previously established status quo of being the country with the highest standard of living in all of South Eastern Europe.
During the meeting of the Euro parliament in November 2013, it was decided that if Greece manages to accumulate excess in its economy it may receive further financial help from the EU to reduce the huge debt that the country currently has.
The Greek Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, announced the official numbers for the country’s primary excess for 2013, just over 1.5 billion euros; this is three times higher than what the Greek government expected, stated Samaras.
It was originally predicted for Greece to be able to accumulate this for 2014, but the Greeks outperformed the predictions. The most interesting aspect of this recent international financial news is that this is the first time in the last 10 years Greece has reported primary economical excess. This could eventually turn out to be huge ground for the Greek government when applying for loans and financial support from all of its international creditors, proving the positive direction of the country’s economy. However, Brussels remains skeptical on this positive news for one of its main debtors. The EU parliament will be waiting for these results to be confirmed in April from Eurostat.
The whole year round predictions for the Greek economy estimate that the country should officially exit the 6-year severe recession later on this year. Greece expects to receive between 1.5 and 2 billion euros from the selling of 5-year bonds. However, another important determinant for the future development of the country will be the local elections that will be held in May. Political analysts argue that strong results and a potential win by the “euro skeptical” party “Siriza” could potentially have a negative influence on the relatively unstable Greek government.
What’s Been Said…