According to the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, after months of fruitless deliberations it is time for Europe to put a cap on natural gas prices, as he stresses in an opinion piece published in Bloomberg. As he notes, in normal times, governments should let markets work. But, as he notes, these are not normal times.
The recovery of the Greek economy weakened in the fourth quarter of 2021, however it remained strong, while a significant increase in exports of services and private consumption was recorded again, as reported by IOBE in the Bulletin of Industrial Developments (March 2022). As for the economic climate in February, it remained stable while consumer confidence improved.
GDP growth was strong in the fourth quarter of 2021, at 7.7%, after a recovery of 11.4% in the third quarter. Overall in 2021 the average GDP growth rate was 8.3%, compared to a decrease of 9.0% the year before.
The European and world economies are facing the risk of stagflation (stagnant inflation) due to the war in Ukraine. Big increases in the costs of energy, raw materials, goods, food and transport are creating the conditions for a new big jump in inflation at a time when sanctions and inflation are threatening the economies, which were trying to recover from the big problems caused the pandemic.