Financial Times: Let’s savour the remarkable moment when Greece can advise Germany
- Written by E.Tsiliopoulos
“In these dark days, people tend to look for small rays of light,” Robin Wigglesworth writes in an article for the Financial Times, singling out Kyriakos Pierrakakis’s recent interview with Handelsblatt and its headline as “a small glimmer that brightened our dreary daily lives”.
Taking a brief look back at the economic storms Greece has weathered in the past, the author of the article urges readers “to simply savour a rare positive economic story and enjoy the remarkable moment when Greece finds itself in a position to advise Germany to press ahead with structural reforms”.
As the Financial Times notes, the headline of its article, “Greek finance minister encourages Germany to implement reforms”, was translated from German via Google and stems from an interview Kyriakos Pierrakakis gave to Handelsblatt. The accompanying photograph shows the face of a man who appears to be particularly enjoying his role as Greece’s finance minister, who now finds himself in a position to offer advice to Germany. Yet his actual comments are disappointingly free of any sense of schadenfreude.
Among other points, Kyriakos Pierrakakis notes in the interview that the inspiration Greece can offer Germany is that reforms may initially be painful, but they ultimately pay off, both politically and economically.
He also spoke about rising bond yields and Europe’s fundamentals. There are also some sharper references to the fact that fiscal policy is becoming “increasingly important”, the need for “rapid progress” on the Savings and Investments Union, the removal of barriers to intra-European trade, and regret that various “national reservations” are slowing the implementation of positive initiatives.
However, the Financial Times comments, “most of the interview remains, unfortunately, rather cautious”.
It continues: “Greece, however, is clearly enjoying a period of heightened recognition. Greek bond yields are now lower than those of France or Italy, growth has remained strong and unemployment has fallen to 7.9%, its lowest level since 2008.
“The mere fact that Greece now holds the presidency of the Eurogroup is an indication of just how radically circumstances have changed. And yes, the Greek economy is still clearly smaller than it was in 2007. But that pre-2008 period of growth could largely be seen as an illusion brought about by the country’s entry into the euro in 2001 and the subsequent excessive accumulation of debt.
“So let’s simply savour a rare positive economic story and enjoy the remarkable moment when Greece finds itself in a position to advise Germany to press ahead with structural reforms,” the article concludes.
