In the beginning of July 2015, the then Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras stood on Syntagmatorget in Athens and asked the people to vote "Oxi", in other words no, to the EU's reform requirements which just over a week later became a fact. The Prime Minister himself had time to both resign and return before the summer of 2015 was over.
It is never popular to introduce that type of savings measures, but I would say that there was no choice then, says Pia Fromlet about the reform requirements that were received with large protests in the summer of 2015.
Tough years
Afterwards, many years of strict budget, new tax rules, privatization and occasional political turbulence followed. But last year, Greece was one of the few countries in Europe that had a budget surplus and even in 2025, the country's finances are expected to be in surplus. The country's central bank simultaneously expects the GDP to increase by 2.3 percent in 2025.
The combination that they have consolidated the financial policy and got a higher growth, it is a good combination.
Pia Fromlet says that it is important that the country continues to work with growth-friendly reforms and, among other things, reviews the tax system.
Greece has done that, but I think they can do further reforms there.
Still large debt
Greece's credit rating has gradually improved and in the spring, it left the so-called "junk status". The credit rating is at the same level as Italy's and still worse than most other European countries. Pia Fromlet points out that since the national debt is still high, it is important that the interest rates on the country's government bonds do not rise again.
If one starts to pursue an irresponsible financial policy with expenses that do not increase growth in the long run, then it can go pretty fast, because on the financial market, a lot is about confidence.
Despite the fact that Greece has significantly reduced the debt, it is still the largest national debt in Europe in relation to GDP. Last year, it was at 153 percent of GDP. For comparison, Sweden's national debt is at 33 percent of GDP, according to Eurostat.
Greece has indeed, even if there is still some left to do, learned its lesson.
