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PHOTO: THE BALANCE / JULIE BANG
Note
Since the debt crisis began in 2010, the various European
authorities and private investors have loaned Greece nearly 320
billion euros.
The crisis triggered the eurozone debt crisis, creating fears that it would
spread into a global financial crisis. It warned of the fate of other heavily
indebted EU members. This massive crisis was triggered by a country
whose economic output is no bigger than the U.S. State of Connecticut.
[3]
Half of Greek households relied on pension income since one out of five
Greeks were 65 or older. [5] Workers weren’t thrilled paying contributions
so seniors can receive higher pensions.
The results are mixed. In 2017, Greece ran a budget surplus of 0.8%.
[7] Its economy grew 1.4%, but unemployment was still 22%. [8] One-third
of the population lived below the poverty line. Its 2017 debt-to-GDP
ratio was 182%.
Timeline
In 2009, Greece announced its budget deficit would be 12.9% of its GDP.
[2]
That's more than four times the EU's 3% limit. Rating agencies Fitch,
Moody's, and Standard & Poor's lowered Greece's credit ratings. That
scared off investors and raised the cost of future loans.
In January 2015, voters elected the Syriza party to fight the hated
austerity measures. On June 27, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras
announced a referendum on the measures. He falsely promised that a
"no" vote would give Greece more leverage to negotiate a 30% debt
relief with the EU. On June 30, 2015, Greece missed its scheduled 1.55
billion euros payment. [11] Both sides called it a delay, not an official
default. Two days later, the IMF warned that Greece needed 60 billion
euros in new aid. It told creditors to take further write-downs on the
more than 300 billion euros Greece owed them.
On July 20, Greece made its payment to the ECB, thanks to a loan of 7
billion euros from the EU emergency fund. The United
Kingdom demanded the other EU members guarantee its contribution
to the bailout.
On September 20, Tsipras and the Syriza party won a snap election. [15] It
gave them the mandate to continue to press for debt relief in
negotiations with the EU. However, they also had to continue with the
unpopular reforms promised to the EU.
In July, Greece was able to issue bonds for the first time since 2014. It
planned to swap notes issued in the restructuring with the new notes
as a move to regain investors' trust.
On August 20, 2018, the bailout program ended. [2] Most of the
outstanding debt is owed to the EU emergency funding entities. These
are primarily funded by German banks.
Causes
How did Greece and the EU get into this mess in the first place? The
seeds were sown back in 2001 when Greece adopted the euro as its
currency. Greece had been an EU member since 1981 but couldn't enter
the eurozone. Its budget deficit had been too high for the
eurozone's Maastricht Criteria. [3]
All went well for the first several years. Like other eurozone countries,
Greece benefited from the power of the euro. It lowered interest
rates and brought in investment capital and loans.
France and Germany were also spending above the limit at the time.
They'd be hypocritical to sanction Greece until they imposed their own
austerity measures first.
As a result, Greek debt continued to rise until the crisis erupted in 2008.
At first, that would seem ideal for Greece, but foreign owners of Greek
debt would have suffered debilitating losses as the drachma
plummeted. That would debase the value of repayments in their own
currency. Some banks would go bankrupt. Most of the debt is owned by
European governments, whose taxpayers would foot the bill.
If Greece had defaulted, the ECB would have been fine. It was unlikely
that other indebted countries would have defaulted.
For these reasons, a Greek default wouldn’t have been worse than the
1998 Long-Term Capital Management debt crisis. That's
when Russia's default led to a tidal wave of defaults in other emerging
market countries. The IMF prevented many defaults by providing capital
until their economies had improved. The IMF owns 21.1 billion euros of
Greek debt, not enough to deplete it. [21]
The differences would be the scale of defaults and that they are in
developed markets. It would affect the source of much of the IMF's
funds. The United States wouldn’t be able to help. While a huge backer
of IMF funding, it's now deep in debt, itself. There would be no political
appetite for an American bailout of European sovereign debt.
Outlook
Despite austerity measures, many aspects of Greece’s economy are still
problematic. Government spending makes up 48% of the GDP while EU
bailouts contribute around 3%. [22] As of 2017, Greece relies on tourism
for 20% of GDP. Bureaucracy often delays commercial investments for
decades. The government has shrunk, but it is still inefficient. There is
too much political patronage. Government decision-making is
centralized, further slowing response time.
Tax evasion has gone underground as more people operate in the black
economy. It now comprises 21.5% of GDP. As a result, fewer people are
paying higher taxes to receive less from the government than they did
before the crisis.
Many of the jobs available are part-time and pay less than before the
crisis. As a result, hundreds of thousands of the best and brightest have
left the country. Banks haven’t completely recuperated, and are
hesitant to make new loans to businesses. It will be a slow road to
recovery.
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