Greece: the bad apple of the bunch?
The present debate about the Greek financial situation tends often to pit Greece against the rest of the Eurozone. As an example, Joergen Oerstrom Moeller writes that:
Since 2010 the Eurozone economy has turned around from contraction to growth – the growth forecast for 2015 is 1.5 percent, work to set up a banking union is well under way, and measures constituting bulwarks have been put in place. The little stroke can fell great oakeswas a proverb that ominously sounded in the corridors 4-5 year ago; not any longer.and
Unless Greece is willing to restructure its economy implementing policy objectives and instruments used by the majority of the EU member countries why should the Eurozone bail it out? What is the virtue of having a member that consistently and continually refuse to bring its economy into a shape similar to the one that the rest of the club is running. Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and Italy have all gone through painful reforms and been rewarded with a much improved economic situation and a promising outlook for the future. What are the arguments for not asking Greece to do the same?Unfortunately, the data tell a different story. Greece is not alone in having economic problems and all the Southern European countries tend to show similar trends. For instance in terms of GdP per capita, the Greek decline is sharper than that of the others, but not qualitatively different. (image from Google public data)
If this were not enough, take a look at the industrial production data (from Bilbo Economic Outlook). Greece is sinking, yes, but so are Italy and Spain, and France is hardly doing better.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
