The six-year Greek recession will end in 2014, according to a new report from the nation’s government.
Greece has been locked in a debt crisis that caused panic about the future of the euro, the European currency. Other European countries and the International Monetary Fund have had to repeatedly bail out the Greek government.
However, officials in Athens, the seat of the nation’s government, said this week that not only will the nation’s economy grow in 2014, but Greece also is expected to post a budget surplus this year from the first time in more than a decade.
The surplus makes Greece eligible for more financial aid and debt relief from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, according to Reuters. The country has been kept solvent in recent years by about 240 billion euros in aid from the two agencies.
All of this news reverses years of economic woes in Greece, which had become something of a problem child in the euro zone. The news is good for those looking to begin careers in business, particularly jobs with an international component. A healthier Greece should lead to a healthier Europe, good news for the global financial community.
Still, many experts preached caution.
The estimated growth for 2014 is a far-from-robust 0.6%. And the level of indebtedness this year for Greece is still more than 175% of the nation’s gross domestic product.
“The key thing is that while things are improving they’re doing so from a very low level in Greece. Greece still needs financial assistance from outside,” Ben May, an economist at London-based Capital Economics, told Reuters. “Certainly there are signs that the worst of the crisis may well be over in the euro zone in the short term but you could easily see concerns flaring up longer term.”
On the streets of Athens, Reuters found that many of the Greek citizens are not yet seeing much reason for optimism. One person, a newspaper vendor, said that he simply doesn’t believe the government anymore. “Whatever they have told us has been wrong,” the man is quoted as saying by Reuters.
The country still has large unemployment, with 60% of young people out of a job and an overall unemployment rate of 27%, according to Reuters.
The budget surplus is happening a year ahead of schedule, according to Bloomberg. Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said the nation’s 2014 budget was “drafted in an environment of gradual macroeconomic and fiscal stabilization.
“It takes into account the first positive signals, seen in 2013, which were the result of Greek society’s great sacrifices.”
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