Research from the Unions and from the business sector points to moderate optimism by Antonis D. Papagiannidis The research institute of the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) is – for once – more or less aligned in the findings of its mid-year November 2023 Report, with those flowing from the review of the business-close Foundation for Economic and Industry Research (IOBE) covering the same time-frame. IOBE publicized data setting out an overall positive feeling, with consumer confidence turning positive [...]

From promise to project to reality by Antonis D. Papagiannidis It is a long tradition in Greek public life, to have repeated launches of projects – especially of major infrastructure with expected high social added-value: roll-outs of plans, inaugurations when breaking ground, well-promoted scale models, further inaugurations when successive further steps are made, grand openings at first-use day. All of which tend to span several years, with electoral campaigns and their needs being catered to all along. With politically contentious [...]

Of competitiveness and innovation by Antonis D. Papagiannidis An eerie feeling of end-run in Greece’s uphill struggle to leave behind the shadows of successive crises – from the decade-long debt crisis to the corona-virus one and now to the geopolitically-tinted energy crisis with a resurgent inflation backdrop – and to contend for a positive future in the emerging new global set-up, such a feeling was present in the Global Innovation Summit than ran for five days along the Annual Meeting [...]

Of European Commission forecasts and of Greek country risk by Antonis D. Papagiannidis Greece seems all set to become a positive outlier for growth in 2022 within the EU and the Euro-area. So much is evident from the European Commission Winter Economic Forecast 2022 where Greece is expected to reach a 6% GDP increase, compared with just 3.2% for the Euro area and 3.3% for the EU. This is significantly higher than an earlier E.C. 4% forecast. As for inflation, [...]

Greek post-WWII industry: of fallacies and unsung truths by Antonis D. Papagiannidis The saga of Greek post-WWII manufacturing that helped to propel the economy to developed-world status ended somehow abruptly in the Eighties. It left behind a number of popular fallacies that either belittle or misrepresent the real achievements of a vibrant sector. It is true that Greek industrialists never really invested own capital in their own firms? Did post-War industry remain in the labour intensity league and missed the [...]

Greek real estate in 2022-23: peering through the looking glass by Antonis D. Papagiannidis Central Bank interest rate hikes and the overall shift to restrictive monetary policy, along with the feeling that real estate in many places around the world had reached a new bubble territory, lead to falling housing markets. Meanwhile, the changes in work practices, to which the corona-virus lock down experience served as catalyst, had already thinned out the commercial property market insofar office space is concerned; [...]

The diehard experience of trickle-down economies and of fiscal rigour by Antonis D. Papagiannidis The way in which the markets (yes, the self-same markets any government with impeccable neo-liberal credentials swears by) ejected first the British Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwazi Kwarteng, then the PM Liz Truss herself should serve as a lesson on how pious credos are not enough to run open economies. The pound collapsed; the yields of British gilts soared; the sacrifice of Kwarteng at the altar [...]

Diverging snapshots from the migrant front by Antonis D. Papagiannidis Five snapshots from the – increasingly horrifying – front of migrants /refugees crossing the Aegean or the land border at Evros river and adding to Greek-Turkish tensions: The latest snapshot: 92 stark-naked asylum-seekers were landed at the Greek bank of the Evros river, evidently pushed forward by Turkish forces on rubber boats. The very pictures of human beings huddling together in utter dejection and shame were more than an affront [...]