Athens, Rising

by Charly Wilder

New York Times
June 18, 2018

It was Saturday night in Athens, and I was surrounded by dozens of young Greeks on the packed veranda of Six d.o.g.s., a cafe-bar and arts space that runs the length of an alleyway in the Monastiraki neighborhood. It was the 10-year anniversary party for Laternative, a local radio show launched in the wake of the country’s debt crisis, and people spilled into the gallery space, gathered under light-strung trees in the back garden and in the club area where the first of several bands was about to play.

Most of the partygoers looked to be in their early and mid 20s, just like I was the first time I came to this exact spot nearly 12 years ago, back when it was a tiny indie rock bar called Kinky. Standing here now, I could almost see myself as I was then: a 24-year-old backpacker sitting alone in the corner, smoking cheap Greek cigarettes and nursing a raki, unaware that my life had come to a crossroads.

There are places we live and places we visit, and then there are the other places. Places we return to, where we put down roots, but not strong enough roots to hold us — places that change us, that we haunt and are haunted by. Nowhere embodies this for me more than Athens, a city I’ve watched shift and evolve, endure crisis and chaos and economic collapse, and yet emerge from the wreckage as one of the continent’s most vibrant and significant cultural capitals, more popular than ever as a tourist destination. (Last year Athens welcomed a record 5 million visitors, double the 2012 figure.)

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Greece and Macedonia sign landmark deal over disputed name

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
June 17, 2018

Greece and Macedonia signed a landmark agreement modifying the name of Macedonia, as police used tear gas to disperse hundreds of nationalist protesters gathered on the Greek side.

Speaking on Sunday during a ceremony at the border between the countries, Alexis Tsipras, Greek prime minister, said the two nations had achieved “ a historic agreement . . . to lay the foundations of a new epoch in the region.”

Zoran Zaev, prime minister of the newly named North Macedonia, said: “We have put an end to longstanding problems that worsened our relations. The past 30 years have taught us important lessons . . . and now that we are building a friendship between our two countries, we will become allies and partners.”

Mr Tsipras, however, warned that the two countries “would face a challenge to complete the deal” in a reference to a forthcoming referendum in Macedonia to approve the new name, and constitutional changes for which Mr Zaev’s coalition government currently lacks a majority.

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Alexis Tsipras Deserves the Nobel Peace Prize

by Edward P. Joseph

Foreign Policy
June 15, 2018

The two leaders who deserve the Nobel Peace Prize did not meet this week in Singapore. Instead, they will meet Sunday on the banks of a clear, freshwater lake that borders Greece, Macedonia, and Albania. Prime Ministers Alexis Tsipras of Greece and Zoran Zaev of Macedonia — a country on track to be known formally as North Macedonia — will sign an agreement to resolve the bitter decades-long conflict over Macedonia’s name.

In fact, the deal does much more than that. It creates a model for addressing identity clashes that drive conflict not only in the Balkans but across the globe. A stinging rebuke to Russia and to its populist cronies in Europe, the agreement injects a timely boost of confidence in the European Union and the entire Western project for the Balkans. The agreement still faces stiff opposition from nationalists in both countries who have assailed their respective leader as a traitor. To avoid that outcome, it’s urgent that Tsipras and Zaev gain not just support, but worldwide acclaim.

Long mocked by diplomats as ridiculous, the Greek objection to Macedonia’s name — and the prideful Macedonian response — are rooted in the most basic questions of identity. Nowhere is the question posed more acutely than in the Balkans, where adding as little as a vowel to a word or an extra kiss to the cheek can immediately signal disrespect. Croats, Serbs, and Bosniaks, and Albanians and Serbs, all fought bitter wars over territory claimed as national patrimony. The struggle over national identity continues to infuse politics throughout the region as parties vie to ensure that “we,” as opposed to “the other,” get our due, speak our language, fly our flag, dominate our economy.

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Greek government faces confidence vote after Macedonia name deal

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
June 15, 2018

Greek MPs will debate a motion of no-confidence in the leftwing Syriza-led government on Friday after Alexis Tsipras, prime minister, agreed a deal to rename the country’s neighbour as North Macedonia to try to end a decades-old dispute.

The move, triggered by the conservative New Democracy opposition party, is part of a growing backlash against the accord announced on Tuesday by Mr Tsipras and Zoran Zaev, his Macedonian counterpart.

The announcement followed five months of negotiations assisted by a UN special mediator but feeling is strong in both Greece and Macedonia over the issue. Resentment is especially strong in the northern city of Thessaloniki, capital of Greece’s own region of Macedonia and a stronghold of nationalist sentiment over the name.

Some Thessalonikans claim that their Slavic neighbours should be punished for “usurping” the name and heritage of the ancient Macedonian kingdom based in northern Greece and its warrior king, Alexander the Great, even though the region benefits from trade and tourism with Skopje.

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The hounding of Greece’s former statistics chief is disturbing

Economist
June 14, 2018

Imagine the tale of Sisyphus, the mythical king doomed to spend eternity pushing a boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down, retold by Kafka. The result would be very like the tortuous story of Andreas Georgiou, Greece’s former statistics chief.

Since 2011 Mr Georgiou has faced several criminal charges. One is that he inflated budget-deficit figures, forcing Greece to seek a bail-out and resulting in alleged damages of €171bn ($190bn). Another is that he violated his duty by failing to seek approval from the statistical agency’s board before sending the figures to the European authorities.

Although Mr Georgiou was acquitted several times on both charges, the acquittals were annulled and he was retried. In 2017 he was found guilty of a violation of duty. He has now learnt that the Supreme Court had rejected his appeal, rendering the conviction final. It carries a two-year suspended sentence. In May prosecutors said they were refiling the charges that he inflated the figures and thus injured Greece. He will now be tried for a third time in the court of appeals. If found guilty, he could face life in prison.

Yet both Mr Georgiou’s numbers and his methodology were verified by Europe’s statistical agency. The method is still accepted by Greece’s creditors and its government. The chief statistician is also legally required to be independent: statistics tend not to be decided by committee.

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Greek parliament approves bailout reform package, moves to no confidence debate

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
June 14, 2018

Greek lawmakers have approved a wide-ranging package of economic reforms, clearing the way for euro-area finance ministers to finalise the terms of the country’s planned exit in August from its current bailout programme.

With the legislation in place, the leftwing Syriza government expects the EU ministers to agree on a medium-term debt relief plan at a meeting in Brussels on June 21. They would also unlock a final €12bn tranche of bailout aid for Greece.

As soon as the vote was completed, however, the conservative opposition New Democracy party filed a motion of no-confidence in the leftwing Syriza-led government on a separate issue: the agreement announced on Tuesday on a new name — North Macedonia — for Greece’s northern neighbour.

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Diplomacy triumphs: Greece and Macedonia resolve name dispute

by Amanda Sloat

Brookings Institution
June 12, 2018

As the world focuses on U.S.-North Korea negotiations, today’s announcement of a resolution to the long-standing disagreement between Greece and Macedonia over the latter’s name is testament to the triumph of patient diplomacy. While successive U.S. administrations have actively supported this effort, the Trump administration deserves kudos for quiet engagement that helped push it over the line.

The name dispute dates to the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991, when the country declared independence as the Republic of Macedonia. Athens objected to international recognition of the new country’s name, which it shared with a region in northern Greece, given concerns it could imply territorial claims. As a compromise, the country joined the United Nations in 1993 under a provisional name (the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). Following a 19-month Greek trade embargo, Macedonia amended its constitution and changed its flag in 1995. However, Greece blocked it from joining NATO or beginning accession talks with the European Union (EU) until the name issue was definitively resolved.

After years of failed efforts, the politics were ripe in both countries for a deal. In Macedonia, the lack of progress on Euro-Atlantic integration contributed to democratic backsliding over the last decade. The government of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski took actions that provoked its southern neighbor. In 2006 it named Skopje airport after Alexander the Great (the ancient Greek king who controlled territory that included the Greek region of Macedonia), and in 2011 it erected a 72-foot statue of him in the capital. Following a two-year political crisis dominated by a corruption scandal and violence in parliament, the election of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev last summer marked the first change of power in 11 years. His center-left government faced a weak economy, tense ethnic relations, and deteriorating political institutions. Motivated to resolve the name issue, he undid the airport and statue irritants as goodwill gestures.

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Greece agrees to recognise neighbour as North Macedonia

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
June 13, 2018

Greece has agreed to recognise its northern neighbour under a new name, the Republic of North Macedonia, ending a long-running dispute over rival claims to the name Macedonia that has fostered nationalist feeling and undermined political stability in the region.

The two prime ministers, Alexis Tsipras and Zoran Zaev, sealed the agreement in an hour-long telephone call on Tuesday, their second in two days.

The name deal is expected to accelerate North Macedonia’s entry to the Nato alliance, which may be approved at an alliance summit in Brussels in July where Greece plans to lift a decade-long veto on the country’s membership.

Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary-general, welcomed the agreement. “I now call on both countries to finalise the agreement reached by the two leaders. This will set Skopje on its path to Nato membership. And it will help to consolidate peace and stability across the wider western Balkans,” he said.

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Greek supreme court rejects statistics chief’s appeal

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
June 10, 2018

Greece’s supreme court has rejected an appeal by the country’s former statistics chief to quash his conviction in 2017 on charges of violation of duty.

According to people with knowledge of the decision, which has not yet been officially made public, the supreme court upheld the ruling against Andreas Georgiou, the former president of the statistical agency Elstat, even after the court’s own prosecutor asked for the conviction to be annulled.

The supreme court decision will bring to an end a long-running case against Mr Georgiou filed by two political appointees to the Elstat board of directors, as the two-year suspended sentence he received cannot be reversed. The case is one of several brought against the former statistics chief since 2013 which have raised questions about commitment to the rule of law in Greece, and is the first to have reached a conclusion.

The leftwing Syriza government has faced criticism for not addressing the issue of political interference in the judicial system in the case of Mr Georgiou. A Syriza official said on Sunday the independence of the judiciary was not in doubt.

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Clarissa De Waal, "Beyond the Bailouts: The Anthropology and History of the Greek Crisis"

I.B. Tauris, 2018

Since the nineteenth century, Greek financial and economic crises have been an enduring problem, most recently engulfing the European Union and EU member states. The latest crisis, beginning in 2010, has been - and continues to be - a headline news story across the continent. With a radically different approach and methodology, this anthropological study brings new insights to our understanding of the Greek crises by combining historical material from before and after the nineteenth century War of Independence with extensive longitudinal ethnographic research. The ethnography covers two distinct periods - the 1980s and the current crisis years - and compares Mystras and Kefala, two villages in southern Greece, each of which has responded quite differently to economic circumstances. Analysis of this divergence highlights the book's central point that an ideology of aspiration to work in the public sector, pervasive in Greek society since the nineteenth century, has been a major contributor to Greece's problematic economic development. Shedding new light on previously under-researched anthropological and sociological aspects of the Greek economic crisis, this book will be essential reading for economists, anthropologists and historians.

Clarissa de Waal is a Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge, where she teaches Social Anthropology. She is the author of Everyday Iran: A Provincial Portrait of the Islamic Republic and Albania: Portrait of a Country in Transition (both I.B.Tauris).

Doubts over judicial fairness will hold back Greece

by Tony Barber

Financial Times
June 5, 2018

After eight exhausting years, the era of international financial rescue programmes for Greece will draw to a close in August. But the era of domestic Greek reform is, or should be, anything but over. In coming years, Greece ought to make new exertions encompassing a great deal more than stable public finances, business competitiveness and the return to health of the banking sector.

Naturally, such financial and economic concerns remain a priority for Greece. Its public debt amounts to more than 180 per cent of gross domestic product. Its economy shrank by a quarter in the crisis years. Growth, though returning, is still modest. Arguably, however, what Greece needs most is a lasting improvement in the quality of public administration and the rule of law. If achieved, this would provide in the long run the most reliable basis of prosperity, justice and modernisation.

Greece’s political classes, like society as a whole, give the impression of being pulled in two directions at once. Some politicians, civil servants, business people and ordinary citizens are convinced of the need for an intensive reform effort. Others do not seem, in their heart of hearts, to want to change old habits. Sometimes these contradictory attitudes coexist in the same person, small business, or political party.

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Greece May Be Turning a Corner. Greeks Who Fled Are Staying Put.

by Liz Alderman

New York Times
June 5, 2018

After a decade of economic pain, Greece finally appears to be back on track. Try telling that to the Greeks who left and have no plans to return, like Constantine Kakoyiannis.

As Mr. Kakoyiannis raised a glass of pilsner beer, he toasted his girlfriend at a German cafe in Düsseldorf, alongside 40 of their friends. The group, part of a club of expatriate Greek engineers, was welcoming several newcomers who had fled Greece in just the last few months.

“The situation isn’t getting better,” Mr. Kakoyiannis said. “When you realize that your country has become a cemetery of dreams, you need to find dreams elsewhere.”

While the Continent is finally emerging from the economic crisis, Greece still faces challenges. Nearly half a million Greeks have become economic migrants since the crisis began, one of the biggest exoduses from any eurozone country.

And they are still leaving.

Among them are doctors, technicians, architects and other skilled professionals as well as recent graduates who continue to stake out Europe’s prosperous north for work. Mr. Kakoyiannis managed to secure a coveted job as an engineer, and his girlfriend followed him here.

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Delayed Greek asset sales pick up steam as bailout approaches end

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
June 5, 2018


Sitting in a cramped office a few streets away from the headquarters of Greece’s Public Power Corporation, trade unionist Giorgos Adamides admitted that the privatisation of the sprawling state-owned electricity utility could no longer be postponed.

“It’s a national crime that the government is selling off power plants and we [the union] fought hard against it but the troika [of Greece’s international creditors] have the upper hand,” said the president of GENOP-DEH, the power workers’ union.

To the disappointment of people such as Mr Adamides, Greece’s privatisation process is — finally — picking up momentum as the leftwing Syriza government races to complete a package of reforms and ensure a smooth exit in August from the country’s latest €86bn international bailout programme.

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Greek economy grows by most in a decade

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
June 4, 2018

Greece’s economy is showing signs of a long-awaited rebound.

Output grew by 2.3 per cent in yearly terms between January and March, marking a fifth straight quarter of expansion according to Elstat, the statistics service.

Analysts said the first quarter figure, the highest recorded in the past decade, matched projections by the EU and International Monetary Fund that gross domestic product would increase this year by around 2 per cent.

Seasonally-adjusted data showed growth accelerating from an upwardly revised 2 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2017, Elstat said.

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EU official says Greece’s bond market access is ‘fragile’

by Derek Gatopoulos

Associated Press
May 31, 2018

A top European Union official in Greece says the country’s access to bond markets remains “fragile” amid the ongoing financial turmoil triggered by the political uncertainty in Italy.

Declan Costello, who supervises the Greek bailout program for the European Commission, made the cautionary remarks at a conference in Athens on Thursday. Greece is preparing to end its third international bailout program in late August with plans to return to financing itself on bond markets.

“It’s clear that while Greece is coming out of the program — it has tentatively regained market access — that the situation remains fragile,” Costello said.

“And it will be very, very important that Greece continues to demonstrate, not just in the period up to the end of the program, but actually in the critical period after the program, that reforms are on track.”

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Greece eases capital controls ahead of expected bailout exit in August

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
May 31, 2018

Greece plans to increase the monthly limit on cash withdrawals from local bank accounts to €5,000 from €2,300 as part of measures to ease capital controls ahead of the country’s expected exit in August from its current bailout programme.

The finance ministry said the measures were “another step on the road to a full relaxation of capital controls”. They would take effect in June.

Capital controls were imposed in June 2015 when fears that Greece was about to crash out of the euro prompted a run on the country’s banks.

Under the latest regulations, bank customers will be able to transfer €4,000 bi-monthly to accounts abroad and take up to 3,000 in euros or foreign currency in banknotes on trips outside Greece.

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The Far Left and Right Run Riot on Greek Streets

by Yannis Palaiologos

Wall Street Journal
May 28, 2018

Greece’s long economic crisis may technically be over, as the country is on course to exit its third bailout in August. But the decade-long depression leaves in its wake a society seething with resentment and divided on the causes of the catastrophe. The Greek political system is ill-equipped to deal with this fallout—which includes various shades of political violence.

Earlier this month Mayor Yannis Boutaris of Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, was attacked and beaten during a ceremony to commemorate the massacre of Pontic Greeks by Turkish forces during World War I. Mr. Boutaris, 75, has drawn the ire of far-right groups for years over his social liberalism and insistent push for better relations with Turkey and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Two days after the attack, anarchists stormed Greece’s top administrative court, smashing window panes and tossing paint on the walls. The incidents are symptoms of a wider trend in the country: the inability of the state to defend the rule of law as various groups challenge its monopoly on force.

In the early years of the bailout era, Greece was beset by violent mass demonstrations. Several members of Parliament and other officials were waylaid in public for not standing up to the demands of the country’s creditors. Syriza, at the time a small hard-left opposition party, often rationalized these incidents as the product of the legitimate indignation of the people. In some cases, the party’s local cadres and student members led the way. Meantime, the far-right group Golden Dawn grew more influential and attempted to impose its dominance on the streets, attacking and even killing immigrants and left-wing activists.

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Greece unveils post-bailout growth plan

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
May 23, 2018

Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, has unveiled a “strategic growth plan” to be implemented after the country exits the current €86bn bailout programme in August.

“It’s a plan that shows the path Greece will follow after the fiscal stabilisation programme ends, a plan that will lead us to an era where we stand on our own two feet.” Mr Tsipras told parliament. “It details our achievements, our goals and our aspirations.”

The 100-page policy document presented to MPs forecasts sustained growth above 2 per cent yearly over the next five years in line with projections by Greece’s international creditors while setting a modest target of €11bn of new investment.

Economic reforms would continue, underpinned by “key performance indicators and ongoing rigorous monitoring,” according to the text, which was produced by Greek finance ministry experts, indicating that Greece expects to remain under close surveillance by its creditors, the EU and the International Monetary Fund.

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Greek consultant sues health minister and deputy

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
May 14, 2018

The wife of Greece’s central bank governor has taken legal action against the country’s health minister and his deputy, claiming they unlawfully annulled an EU-backed project in which her company was involved and undermined her professional reputation.

Lina Nikolopoulou, a healthcare consultant, is married to Yannis Stournaras, governor of the Bank of Greece.

“I have faced harassment from the judicial authorities for more than a year over this particular project even though my company’s participation was ruled as satisfactory by auditors in line with EU regulations,” Ms Nikolopoulou said in an interview.

Greece’s health ministry last year retroactively annulled a €3.5m project in which Mindwork, a company that Ms Nikolopoulou controls, was involved. Her lawsuit requests that Greece’s anti-corruption prosecutor investigate why the ministry did so.

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Fragile Balkans’ future depends on Macedonia deal

by Tony Barber

Financial Times
May 7, 2018

If the definition of progress is that a country no longer names its capital’s airport after a warrior king who died 2,300 years ago in Babylon, then there is surely hope for the Balkans — the source of many a modern European conflict. In February, Macedonia’s reformist leadership reversed the previous government’s bombastic nationalism and changed the name of Alexander the Great airport to Skopje International. The ice began to melt in one of post-Communist Europe’s most vexed disputes.

On the highway into Skopje, capital of the former Yugoslav republic, large green signs tell of more change. The road no longer bears Alexander’s name but is called Friendship Highway. Macedonian leaders consider these relabelling exercises to be not cosmetic but genuine concessions to Greece. For 27 years, Athens has accused its northern neighbour of laying claim to Greece’s territory, cultural heritage and identity by using Macedonia as a name and Alexander as a state symbol.

Negotiations aimed at finding a compromise on Macedonia’s name are approaching a climax. The foreign ministers of Greece and Macedonia have met 20 times. Should a deal be struck, it would send a rare signal to other quarrelling Balkan states and communities — Serbia and Kosovo, for example, or the Muslims, Croats and Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina — that even the most painful historical wounds heal with treatment.

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Greek banks face €15.5bn hit to capital under stress tests

by Martin Arnold & Kerin Hope

Financial Times
May 5, 2018

Greece’s four biggest banks would take a €15.5bn hit to their average capital in a future economic downturn, according to the results of the European Central Bank’s stress test of the country’s main lenders.

The ECB’s health check of the Greek banking system is designed to determine if any of the banks need extra equity before the country enters talks on leaving its eight-year bailout programme.

Senior Greek officials said the outcome of the exercise meant there was “no immediate need for a capital increase by any bank”. However, one official said that while the banks were out of immediate danger they needed to clean up their balance sheets and several were likely to raise capital soon — notably Piraeus Bank, which emerged as a laggard in the tests.

“The stress test have gone as well as we could expect,” said one official, adding that they would ease Greece’s return to borrowing on international markets.

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Achieving an inclusive and sustainable recovery in Greece

by Mauro Pisu & Tim Bulman

OECD
April 30, 2018

Greece is finally recovering from a deep depression. In 2017 GDP expanded by 1.3%, according to initial estimates, and is projected to accelerate to 2% in 2018 and 2.3% in 2019 (Figure 1). Labour market reforms have improved competitiveness and exports are leading the expansion. Overall the economy is becoming more open. Exports rose from 24% of GDP in 2008 to 34% in 2017. Employment is rising strongly while the external and fiscal imbalances are being addressed. Public finances are outperforming European Stability Mechanism (ESM) Stability Support programme’s targets, helping to restore fiscal credibility. Financial markets are taking notice, with bond spreads falling and agencies upgrading their ratings of Greece’s public debt.

Despite these positive developments, the long crisis has left deep scars in the society that have yet to heal. GDP per capita is still 25% below its pre-crisis level. The public debt is still high. Wages are low. Though poverty has stabilised, it remains near a record high, especially among the young and families.

The OECD’s 2018 Economic Survey of Greece suggests that maintaining the reform momentum and strengthening reform ownership will be essential to sustaining the recovery and moving towards a more inclusive and prosperous society. Keeping the reform momentum is crucial to tackle the three key challenges highlighted in the 2018 Survey: Improving debt sustainability, sustaining job growth and reducing poverty, boosting investment.

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Read the OECD 2018 Economic Survey for Greece

Relief for Greece? The debt dilemma facing creditors

by Jim Brunsden, Mehreen Khan & Kerin Hope

Financial Times
April 26, 2018

Greece is approaching a momentous moment: the end of eight years of international bailouts that forced the country into unprecedented belt-tightening in exchange for a cash lifeline from eurozone governments and the International Monetary Fund.

But even as the August 20 end date for Greece’s support programme looms into view, Athens knows the next few weeks will be crucial in determining relations with its creditors and the scale of its debt repayments for years, if not decades, to come.

Eurozone finance ministers will gather in Sofia on Friday to press ahead with negotiations that are supposed to deliver a political deal by June on an “exit package” for Greece. It is intended to ensure the country can smoothly return to the sort of normal market financing that most nations enjoy.

But that will require eurozone governments to tackle something they have avoided for years: how much debt relief Athens will be allowed.

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Greece’s Creditors Close to Compromising on Debt

by Viktoria Dendrinou

Bloomberg
April 21, 2018

Greece’s creditors are getting closer on a deal to ease the country’s debt burden, according to Eurogroup President Mario Centeno.

Greece’s 86-billion euro ($106-billion) bailout program is set to run out in August, and creditors are working on finding a compromise on debt repayments that would help to manage the country’s financing needs after it stops receiving international aid. A debt deal would also allow the International Monetary Fund to participate in the current bailout.

“The positions today are much closer than they used to be before,” Centeno, who is Portugal’s finance minister and chairs the meetings of his euro-area counterparts, said in an interview in Washington. “We still have a final mile to go but there is a positive sentiment around the table so I think that reflects a true willingness to be part of the program.”

Further easing Greek debt is a key precondition for the Washington-based IMF before it can participate in the country’s program. While the IMF has co-financed Greece’s first two bailouts it hasn’t yet activated its third one, arguing the euro area must arrange for more debt sustainability. But the participation of the fund, even a few months before the end of the bailout, is important for some countries including Germany, who see the IMF coming on board as a seal of approval that will offer credibility to the bailout.

A “committed presence” by the IMF will also help with market confidence, Centeno said.

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Greek parliament ends probe into bribery allegations

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
April 19, 2018

Greece's parliament has ended a probe into allegations that 10 senior politicians, including two former prime ministers, the governor of the central bank and the country's current EU commissioner, accepted millions of euros in bribes from the Swiss drug producer Novartis.

An all-party parliamentary committee decided late Wednesday night that it was not competent to pursue the case.

The committee will hand back the case to a special prosecutor to investigate possible money-laundering by the 10 accused, a parliamentary spokesperson said. An anti-corruption prosecutor has already ordered bank accounts belonging to the politicians to be opened as part of the probe.

All those accused have denied wrongdoing, claiming they were targeted by the leftwing Syriza government in a drive to undermine the credibility of its political opponents.

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Tsipras Fights on All Fronts as Greece Is Back in the Spotlight

by Eleni Chrepa

Bloomberg
April 16, 2018

Consider what Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is up against.

As Greece prepares to free itself from an eight-year European bailout, its 43 year-old premier is confronting challenges at home and abroad. On the domestic front: preparations for post-bailout economic life and the first general election since the end of the program, including feuds with both allies and rivals. On the foreign-policy front: increased tensions with traditional rival Turkey and regional instability stemming from a dispute over a neighboring country’s name.

Tsipras’s ability to navigate through all this could determine just how stable the country and its region will be in coming years, experts say, and the European Union, the U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are all watching with interest.

“The worst problem for Tsipras, for the government, but also for Greece is the evolving ‘rogueness’ of Turkey,” said Aristides Hatzis, a professor of law and economics at the University of Athens. “Diminishing American influence on the region is a destabilizing factor and the stakes are very high,” Hatzis said, adding that Greece is not a primary concern for Turkey, but a part of an overall plan by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to establish hegemony in the region.

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How to Solve the Greek Debt Problem

by Jeromin Zettelmeyer, Emilios Avgouleas, Barry Eichengreen, Miguel Poiares Maduro, Ugo Panizza, Richard Portes, Beatrice Weder di Mauro, & Charles Wyplosz

Peterson Institute for International Economics
Policy Brief 18-10
April 2018

Greece’s debt currently stands at close to €330 billion, over 180 percent of GDP, with almost 70 percent owed to European official creditors. The fact that Greece’s public debts must be restructured is by now widely accepted. What remains controversial, however, is the extent of debt relief needed to make Greece’s debt sustainable.

This Policy Brief argues that the debt relief measures outlined by the Eurogroup will not be sufficient to restore the sustainability of Greece’s debt. At the same time it shows that Greece’s debt sustainability can in fact be restored without aggravating moral hazard—i.e., encouraging future governments in Greece and elsewhere in the euro area to take risks in the belief that they will be bailed out—and within the framework of EU law, in particular Article 125 of the Lisbon Treaty, which prohibits EU members from assuming liability for the debts of other members.

It concludes that only conditional face value debt relief, in combination with the measures already considered by the Eurogroup, would restore Greece’s debt sustainability with reasonable confidence. Furthermore, if the debt relief is structured in a way that creates incentives for additional fiscal adjustment, as proposed in this Brief, the amount of face value debt relief required could be modest—on the order of 10 to 15 percent of the outstanding official debt.

Read the PDF

Uber to suspend service in Greece after new legislation

Reuters
April 5, 2018

Ride-hailing service Uber said on Thursday it would suspend its licensed service in Greece after the approval of local legislation which imposes stricter regulation on the sector.

Uber, which operates a licensed service in the Greek capital, has faced opposition from local taxi drivers who accuse it of taking their business.

“New local regulations were voted on recently with provisions that impact ride-sharing services,” Uber said in a blog post. “We have to assess if and how we can operate within this new framework and so will be suspending uberX in Athens from next Tuesday until we can find an appropriate solution.”

Uber operates two services in Athens: UberX, which uses professional licensed drivers, and UberTAXI, which uses taxi drivers.

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Lignite mining: Greece’s dirty secret - in pictures

Photographs and research by Anna Pantelia

Guardian
March 23, 2018

Mining for lignite - or brown coal - in Greece is a huge industry. Together with Germany and Poland, the country accounts for more than one-third of the world’s coal production. But for residents of villages in the extraction areas of West Macedonia, it has many impacts, from displacement to health problems.

Thick dust suspended in the atmosphere makes it hard to see the sun over Ptolemaida, a city 500 kilometres north-west of Athens in the West Macedonia region, known for its brown coal (lignite) mines and power stations.

Kostas works as a guard for the state-owned Public Power Corporation (PPC), like his father before him. “My father died of cancer when I was 12,” he says. “Four other men from his shift lost their lives from cancer.”

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Independent report on the Greek official debt

by Emilios Avgouleas, Barry Eichengreen, Ugo Panizza, Miguel Poiares Maduro, Richard Portes, Beatrice Weder di Mauro, Charles Wyplosz & Jeromin Zettelmeyer

CEPR Policy Insight No 92
March 20, 2018

Greece’s third economic programme has been relatively successful, but before it can return to private market financing, the country will require more official debt relief. This Policy Insight asks how much debt relief is required and how it should be delivered. Any debt relief package for Greece that wishes to avoid shifting the burden of repayment several generations into the future will need to include some degree of face-value debt relief.

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Bribery allegations dog Greek elite

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
March 18, 2018

One witness reports that a smartly-dressed Greek executive working for a Swiss pharmaceuticals group wheeled a suitcase into the office of Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. In the case: €2m in large-denomination notes.

On another occasion the same executive is said to have handed a briefcase containing €1m to Yannis Stournaras, then finance minister and now central bank governor, in his sixth-floor office.

These allegations of unabashed bribe-taking by former high-ranking government officials in Greece have emerged from a healthcare scandal being probed by an anti-corruption prosecutor, who has placed three anonymous whistleblowers in a witness protection scheme. The bribery allegations were leaked to Greek media ahead of a parliamentary investigation into the affair.

Mr Samaras and Mr Stournaras strongly deny wrongdoing. They say they are victims of a drive by the leftwing Syriza government of Alexis Tsipras, prime minister, to take control of the country’s judiciary and use legal means to discredit political opponents.

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Greece Is Quietly Backsliding on Reform

by Phyllis Papadavid

Bloomberg
March 14, 2018

Greece’s planned August exit from its third European Stability Mechanism bailout has triggered investor optimism. Its July 2017 bond issuance, the first in three years, was oversubscribed, as were subsequent issuances in February of this year. And yet financial investors should curb their optimism. Greece’s return to the markets, and its economic recovery, are likely to be a bumpy and slow -- especially if it continues to delay key reforms.

Greece’s growth appears to have stabilized at a low rate; some take that as a sign of normalization. The problem with this optimism is that it’s not clear where the future drivers of growth will come from. Household consumption has recovered somewhat, but at an average 0.65 percent growth in 2017, it remains weak by any measure. And with further tax increases and pension cuts planned, it’s hard to see any scope for further acceleration.

No news isn’t necessarily good news when it comes to Greece. Quietly, the government has backtracked on important reform efforts such as privatizing key industries, where it continues to miss its targets. In Athens I drive by the abandoned Ellinikon airport regularly, and its state is a sore reminder of how Greece has long failed to capitalize on its assets. A stalled recovery will mean no real boost in revenues to fund investments. Its debt dynamics will also continue to result in a higher cost of financing.

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Greek Regulator Probes Piraeus Ex-Head for Laundering Breaches

by Christos Ziotis

Bloomberg
March 13, 2018

Piraeus Bank SA property deals involving managers including Former Chairman Michalis Sallas may have cost the bank 6.4 million euros ($7.9 million), according to a report by Greece’s Anti Money-laundering Authority.

In the report, a copy of which was reviewed by Bloomberg, the regulator said it looked at the bank’s sale of five properties to a Cypriot firm in 2016 and found that “there are strong indications that Mr. Sallas and other members of Piraeus management who participated in the deals are guilty of malfeasance.” Sallas, who led the firm for a quarter of a century until he stepped down in July 2016, disputes the report’s findings and denies any wrongdoing.

The properties -- which had been sold in 2003 to companies “linked to Sallas or members of his family” and then repurchased in 2006 by Piraeus -- were offloaded to the Cypriot company in 2016 using loans from the bank, the report said. The transactions, with funds going through a series of intermediate companies, showed the lender was “breaching prudent banking methods,” resulting in a financial hit for the bank, the regulator said.

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Greek Superleague suspended after team owner invades pitch with a gun

by Helena Smith

Guardian
March 12, 2018

Greece’s Superleague has been suspended indefinitely and the country threatened with a ban from world football as the government scrambled to contain the fallout from the extraordinary scenes on Sunday when the gun‑toting oligarch owner of Paok Salonika stormed on to the pitch in a fit of fury to challenge a goal.

Athens’ leftist-led administration, facing widespread criticism of the lawlessness into which the country’s league has sunk, said all top-flight games would be brought to an immediate halt.

“We have decided to suspend the championship indefinitely,” the deputy sports minister, Giorgos Vassiliadis, said after holding two hours of emergency talks with the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras. “The most important thing is that rules apply to everyone. We are in communication with Uefa and the championship will not resume unless there is a new and clear framework, agreed by all, to move forward with rules and regulations.”

Speaking hours after the announcement of an arrest warrant for Paok’s proprietor, Ivan Savvidis, the politician insisted the government would not renege on its decision whatever the “political cost”. He said: “We are not going back, we will continue the fight for transparency and a better football.”

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Greek parliament throws out Syriza probe request after angry debate

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
March 9, 2018

Greece’s parliament has thrown out a request by the centre-right opposition for a probe of three health ministers from the ruling Syriza party as tensions mounted in a dispute over alleged bribe-taking by senior politicians.

The New Democracy party made the proposal in retaliation against a parliamentary investigation launched this week of two former prime ministers, the central bank governor, Greece’s current EU commissioner and six former health ministers for allegedly taking bribes from Novartis, the Swiss drugs company.

All 10 politicians have strongly denied the accusations. Several argued the case lacked validity because it was based on second-hand testimony by unnamed protected witnesses.

Lawmakers from Syriza and its coalition partner, Independent Greeks, turned down the opposition proposal in a late night vote after a day of angry debate.

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Greece and the Troika – Lessons from International Best Practice Cases of Successful Price (and Wage) Adjustment

by Ansgar Belke & Daniel Gros

European Journal of Comparative Economics
Volume 14, No. 2 (2018)

This paper reviews cases of successful price and wage adjustment in Australia, Latvia and the newly-formed German states and contrasts them with the Greek experience under the Troika programme. Latvia stands out as having had the quickest adjustment in wages. By contrast, before the crisis, Greek wages appeared to have been largely insensitive to labour market conditions, but this changed with the programme. The authors find that the reaction of wages to unemployment in Greece under the programme was increasingly similar to that observed in Germany and Portugal (a case that has attracted less attention). A priori it is likely that the change in wage behaviour in Greece was due to the labour market reforms imposed under the programme. But this cannot be proven beyond doubt.

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Greece's "Clean Exit" from the Third Bailout: A Reality Check

by Miranda Xafa

Centre for International Governance Innovation
March 2, 2018
CIGI Policy Brief No. 124

With Greece and its creditors aligned in their desire to avoid a fourth bailout, a smooth exit from the current program appears likely in August after completion of the fourth review; however, several more steps are necessary before Greece exits the program. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras may try to capitalize on a smooth exit from the program by calling early elections in the fall of 2018, before politically painful cuts in pensions take effect. The “twin deficits” in the fiscal and external accounts have all but disappeared, but fiscal imbalances have migrated to private sector balance sheets. Tax arrears and non-performing loans remain at record-high levels while growth disappointed in 2017. These challenges test Tsipras’s promise to make Greece “normal” again. Without further reform to improve the entrepreneurial climate and attract investment, the Greek economy risks being trapped in a low-growth equilibrium.

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The inconvenient truths about Greece

by Theodore Pelagidis & Michael Mitsopoulos

Brookings
March 1, 2018

As Greece seemingly returns to normal, everybody in Athens, Washington, and Brussels hopes to put the whole affair in the rear view mirror, possibly because they know that, at the height of the crisis, neither Greece nor Europe dealt with their respective weaknesses.

But how can this be, when so much has been done—so many pieces of legislation adopted in Europe to deal with the crisis, so many mechanisms created, and so many measures imposed on the mostly reluctant Greeks?

Europe has done rather little to update the structure of its governance to deal with the core issues that exposed it to the crisis, whether in terms of the shakiness of the European Union or with respect to the struggle to enforce EU law evenly in all member states to facilitate “convergence in institutions.” And Greece has done little to offer quality governance to the Greeks in line with an idealized European state.

Which brings us to the inconvenient truths about the supposed “Greek success story.” The average size of Greek firms remains small, a product of many longstanding structural weaknesses at the national level that served as an almost insurmountable barrier to growth. The fallout from this can still be observed in the weak private sector job market, weak innovation and export activity, the “missing tax base,” and a persistently high consumption to GDP ratio. The adjustment programs have failed to put Greece on a trajectory that clearly separates it from these negative metrics that characterize the years until the eruption of the crisis.

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Greek central bank governor repeats call for post-bailout safety net

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
February 26, 2018

Greece’s central bank governor has again urged the government to seek a precautionary credit line after the current €86bn bailout ends in August to reduce borrowing costs on international financial markets.

Yannis Stournaras told the annual meeting of shareholders of the Bank of Greece that “such an arrangement would provide secure access to financing for Greek banks and the public sector after the [bailout] programme ends.”

“The possibility of making use of a preventive support programme shouldn’t be over-dramatised . . . these European mechanisms were created to be used when they are needed,” Mr Stournaras added.

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Greece wraps up port privatisation after three years

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
February 23, 2018

Greece’s parliament has ratified the €1.1bn privatisation of the northern Greek port of Thessaloniki, with a sale to to a consortium of German, French and Russian-Greek companies.

The disposal of OLTH, operator of the port, takes the form of a combined share sale and concession deal, and was agreed under terms of Greece’s international bailout programme. It took three years to complete.

The Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, the country’s privatisation agency, is now moving ahead with the disposal of the Alexandroupolis port in northeastern Greece and nine other regional ports that are 100 per cent state-owned.

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A Modern Greek Tragedy

by Adam Tooze

New York Review of Books
March 8, 2018

On January 25, 2015, after five years of debt crisis and economic and social decline that left half the country’s young people unemployed, the Greek electorate handed power to the most radical coalition to govern a European country in decades. Under the leadership of the youthful Alexis Tsipras, the Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza) won 36.3 percent of the vote, qualifying it for the fifty-seat bonus awarded to the party with a plurality. To the horror of bien pensant opinion in Berlin and Paris, it chose as its partner in government a right-wing nationalist party, the Independent Greeks (ANEL).

In Greece the left was jubilant. The memory of the heroic anti-Nazi resistance, the civil war, and the students who rose up against the dictatorship of the colonels in the 1970s was vindicated. Syriza was the toast of the radical chic from Berlin to Brooklyn. Centrists were bemused. Had such left-wing enthusiasm not had its day? NATO hawks were up in arms. With Ukraine and Syria in mind, columnists fretted over Syriza’s possible ties to Moscow. The oligarchs who controlled much of the Greek media were on the warpath. Tens of billions of euros fled Greek bank accounts.

Meanwhile, Greece’s new finance minister, the ferociously charismatic and thoroughly Anglophone Yanis Varoufakis, became a global celebrity. His glamorous lifestyle, motorcycle, and tight T-shirts delighted the media. In Brussels, European officials still fume about his disruptive impact on their staid proceedings. In Greece he would face charges of treason. The appearance this fall of Varoufakis’s memoir, Adults in the Room, stirs old memories. The legendary Greek-French filmmaker Costa-Gavras has pronounced himself so “enraged by the violence and indifference of the Eurogroup members [i.e., the eurozone finance ministers], especially the German side, to the…unsustainable situation in which the Greek people live,” that he will turn Varoufakis’s exposé into a film.

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Greek parliament backs Novartis probe

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
February 22, 2018

Greece’s parliament has voted to investigate allegations that 10 senior politicians, including two former prime ministers, the country’s EU commissioner and the governor of the central bank, accepted bribes from the Swiss drugmaker Novartis.

Those accused strongly denied wrongdoing in formal speeches during a heated debate that lasted more than 20 hours.

Several argued they had been targeted as political enemies of the ruling leftwing Syriza party, which brought the case to parliament.

Alexis Tsipras, the prime minister, said the vote marked a “break with the past system of arrogance, greed and no transparency.”

A special parliamentary committee will carry out the probe.

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Novartis Bribery Case in Greece Threatens to Bolster Populists

by Eleni Chrepa

Bloomberg
February 21, 2018

Greek lawmakers begin discussions Wednesday on the alleged role of former senior government officials in a Novartis AG bribery case, which is part of a drug-overpricing scandal that’s estimated to have cost the country about 23 billion euros ($28.7 billion).

The case has snared 10 politicians, including former Finance Minister and current Bank of Greece Governor and European Central Bank Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras. All have denied wrongdoing. The Greek parliamentary hearing comes after another ECB Governing Council member, Ilmars Rimsevics of Latvia, was detained over the weekend by the country’s anti-corruption agency on suspicion of securing bribes. He has denied the charges and refused to step down.

The Novartis case in Greece is part of a global pharmaceuticals industry scandal and investigates the Swiss drug-maker’s part in allegedly inflating drug and vaccine prices. The bribery investigation, which has also drawn in two former prime ministers and a European Union commissioner, is roiling the political landscape in Greece as the country prepares for an exit from its bailout program. The case threatens to deepen the public’s disillusionment with established political parties and bolster groups on the extreme, observers said.

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Your Next Truffle May Be Coming From Greece

by Larissa Zimberoff

Bloomberg
February 20, 2018

So you’re dining at a fancy restaurant and choose to splurge on some truffles to top off your repast. The server steps up and presents the vaguely ugly tuber. As the pungent slices rain down on your main course, the waiter announces that these truffles didn’t come from Italy, the traditional provenance of this decadent garnish. They hail from Greece.

Don’t be shocked—be glad. Italians have successfully positioned their product as the most luxurious under the forest floor. But white Alba truffles—tuber magnatum pico—also grow magnificently well in Greece. Even Aristotle mentions them in his writings, but they never made it into the local cuisine. Unlike Italy’s truffles, which have been dug up and eaten for centuries, Greece’s truffles have remained largely undisturbed. At least they did until the Athens-based culinary exporter Eklekto saw their potential for the U.S. market.

But there’s an additional reason to embrace Greek truffles. Usually, countless middlemen touch an Italian truffle before it makes it to market, increasing the consumer’s chances of getting a counterfeit version. Eklekto partners Peter Weltman and George Athanas say they work only with a small group of Greek foragers and know exactly where the product is from. Apart from the forager working with his trusty dog, Weltman and Athanas are the only people that touch the truffles before export, the company says.

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Greece seeks to calm Brussels’ bailout fears

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
February 18, 2018

Greece’s finance minister has said his country will not need to be subject to tight monitoring once its bailout programme ends in August, insisting the concerns of EU partners are misplaced as it can be trusted to manage its finances safely.

Euclid Tsakalotos says that Greece’s new economic growth plan, to be unveiled in April, will assuage fears in Brussels and Washington that the leftwing Syriza government will roll back unpopular economic reforms as soon as bailout constraints are lifted.

“We want as ‘clean’ an exit as possible [from the bailout],” Mr Tsakalotos said in an interview with the Financial Times, using Syriza’s term for drawing a line under eight years of austerity that has seen Greece’s output shrink by about one-quarter and an exodus of some 450,000 young skilled workers to other EU countries.

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These Are the World’s Most Miserable Economies

by Michelle Jamrisko & Catarina Saraiva

Bloomberg
February 15, 2018

Rising prices are more of a threat to the global economy this year than joblessness, according to Bloomberg’s Misery Index, which sums inflation and unemployment outlooks for 66 economies.

Venezuela marks its fourth year as the world’s most miserable economy, with a score that’s more than three times what it was in 2017. Thailand again claimed “least miserable” status, though the nation’s unique way of calculating unemployment makes No. 2 Singapore worth noting. Elsewhere, Mexico looks to make big strides this year as inflation becomes more manageable, while Romania absorbs more misery for the opposite reason.

The Bloomberg Misery Index relies on the age-old concept that low inflation and unemployment generally illustrate how good an economy’s residents should feel. Sometimes, of course, a low tally can be misleading in either category: Persistently low prices can be a sign of poor demand, and too-low joblessness shackles workers who want to switch to better jobs, for instance.

The results largely signal a global economic outlook that remains bright overall: Economists are penciling in 3.7 percent year-on-year growth for the world in 2018, matching last year’s pace that was the best since 2011, according to the Bloomberg survey median.

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Greece’s ruling party backs graft probe into top politicians

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
February 12, 2018

Lawmakers from Greece’s ruling leftwing Syriza party have backed a call by prime minister Alexis Tsipras for a parliamentary probe into allegations that 10 top politicians accepted bribes from the Swiss pharmaceuticals company Novartis.

Two former prime ministers, the central bank governor and a former health minister now serving as the EU’s commissioner for home affairs, were among those named in a report by Greece’s anti-corruption prosecutor on corruption in the state health service.

Six other former ministers and undersecretaries of health are also accused of taking bribes from Novartis between 2001 and 2015 in return for illegally raising drug prices and giving the Swiss company privileged access to the Greek market. All those accused strongly denied wrongdoing.

“Our only aim is to reveal the truth — it is others who resort to “fake news” . . . We have a responsibility to stop the squandering of public money,” Mr Tsipras told Syriza lawmakers on Monday.

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Greece wraps up seven-year bond sale, raises €3bn

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
February 8, 2018

Greece has wrapped up the sale of a seven-year bond after a 48-hour delay blamed on international market turbulence, raising €3bn at a yield of 3.5 per cent.

The issue marked the first time since 2014 that the country has raised new money. A five-year bond issue last July raised €3bn, about half of which involved swapping existing debt for longer-dated paper.

“We proved today . . . that not only can we tap the markets and raise new money but we can do that in circumstances that are not ideal,” said Euclid Tsakalotos, the finance minister.

Demand for the paper exceeded €6bn, with longer-term investors showing interest as well as hedge funds, according to bankers in Athens.

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Greece delays bond sale as markets reel

by Kerin Hope & Kate Allen

Financial Times
February 6, 2018

Greece has temporarily delayed its plan to tap the bond markets for the first time since last summer, as bond investors mull this week’s market turbulence.

Greece is seeking to raise seven-year debt and is aiming for a yield of 3.33 to 3.4 per cent, according to people familiar with its plans.

Those familiar with the deal initially expected bookbuilding to begin as early as today. “It was all due to be wrapped in one day — Tuesday,” one source said.

A banker working on the deal who was not authorised to speak to the press said: “Clearly nothing is happening today. Whether we wait a day or a few days — nothing has been decided.”

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Cyprus president Anastasiades defeats leftist challenger

by Helena Smith

Guardian
February 4, 2018

Greek Cypriots have re-elected Nicos Anastasiades as their eighth president in what is seen as a ringing endorsement of his stable leadership over the past five years.

The 71-year-old conservative won a second five-year term on Sunday with 56% of the vote. His opponent, the leftist-backed independent Stavros Malas, took 44%.

There were scenes of jubilation in Nicosia as news of the incumbent’s 12-point lead reached the campaign headquarters of Anastasiades’ Democratic Rally party (Dysi). Supporters poured on to the streets holding Cypriot, Greek and party flags, chanting slogans and honking horns. “Victory is a beautiful thing,” said Christos Papamichael, a Dysi activist.

Addressing followers soon after, the leader vowed to reactivate peace talks aimed at reconciling Cyprus’ Greek and Turkish communities.

“The biggest challenge we face is reunifying our country. I will continue to work with the same determination in a bid to achieve our common goal – ending foreign occupation and reunifying our state. There are no winners or losers, just Cyprus.”

Anastasiades had long been the frontrunner of a lacklustre electoral campaign marked by voter abstention.

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Greek protesters take to streets in battle over Macedonia’s name

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
February 4, 2018

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the Greek parliament on Sunday to protest against the leftwing Syriza government’s attempt to settle a decades-long dispute with Greece’s northern neighbour over rival claims to the name Macedonia.

Protesters waved Greek flags and shouted “Hands off Macedonia” as the 92-year-old composer Mikis Theodorakis, Greece’s best-known cultural figure, made a rare public appearance to appeal for national unity to counter what he described as a “threat to our territorial integrity”.

“There is one Macedonia and it is, was and always will be Greek,” said the former leftwing activist and culture minister, who has become an outspoken nationalist.

Macedonia and Greece have been at loggerheads for almost 30 years over the name issue, since Macedonia declared independence in 1991 from the collapsing Yugoslav federation. Athens raised objections within weeks, claiming the name implied a territorial claim on Greece’s own region of Macedonia.

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Athens ventures into hostile territory over Macedonia name

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
February 2, 2018

Against the backdrop of a warrior-like statue of Alexander the Great on horseback, retired general Frangoulis Frangos gave a crowd of more than 300,000 in Thessaloniki, the northern Greek capital, the message they had come to hear.

“Macedonia is only Greek and will remain so,” he declared.

Mr Frangos, a burly former army chief of staff, is rallying popular opposition to a new effort by Alexis Tsipras, Greece’s prime minister, to solve one of the country’s most intractable foreign policy disputes: what to call Greece’s northern neighbour, which is officially known as FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia).

Macedonia and Greece have been at loggerheads for almost 30 years over the name issue, since Macedonia declared independence in 1990 from the collapsing Yugoslav federation. Athens raised objections within weeks, claiming the name implied a territorial claim on Greece’s own region of Macedonia.

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The crisis in Greece: The semi-rentier state hypothesis

by Asteris Huliaras & Dimitris Sotiropoulos

London School of Economics & Political Science
Hellenic Observatory
Discusion Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe
GreeSE Papers # 120
January 2018

This article offers an alternative explanation of the ‘Greek crisis’ by using the rentier-state theory. Past explanations referred to domestic pitfalls of the Greek economic development or to external constraints such as the incomplete architecture of the Eurozone. Without rejecting these interpretations, we offer a complementary interpretation underlining the facility and large scale with which external funds have flowed into Greece. This pattern was reminiscent of cases of resource-rich countries of the developing world and have created a semi-rentier state. External resources have spread a ‘rentier mentality’ among state actors and a ‘get-rich-quick mentality’ among business entrepreneurs and interest groups. Political decisions were characterised by risk-averse attitudes, while private actors spent their energy in seeking political protection rather than in initiating new enterprises. Three factors that played a significant role in shaping the Greek crisis and continue to plague Greece are foreign loans, EU funds and tax evasion.

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Greece to tap markets for 7-year debt

by Kerin Hope

Financial Times
January 29, 2018

Greece is to bring a seven-year bond to market in the next two weeks, in what would be its first debt-raising since its return to the capital markets last summer.

Greece aims to raise up to €3bn in seven-year paper, to be followed by a three-year bond and a 10-year bond in the coming months, according to a source familiar with the situation.

It had originally planned to come to the market earlier this month, but was delayed because the government still has to complete some final reforms before the EU signs off on its review of Greece’s third bailout, the source said.

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ECB Interventions in Distressed Sovereign Debt Markets: The Case of Greek Bonds

by Christoph Trebesch & Jeromin Zettelmeyer

Peterson Institute for International Economics
January 2018
Working Paper 18-1

The authors study central bank interventions in times of severe distress (mid-2010), using a unique bond-level dataset of European Central Bank (ECB) purchases of Greek sovereign debt. ECB bond buying had a large impact on the price of short and medium maturity bonds, resulting in a remarkable “twist” of the Greek yield curve. However, the effects were limited to sovereign bonds actually bought. The study finds little evidence for positive effects on market quality or spillovers to close substitute bonds, credit default swap markets, or corporate bonds. The paper’s findings attest to the power of central bank intervention in times of crisis but also suggest that in highly distressed situations, this power may not extend beyond assets actually purchased.

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