Déjà Vu

Following on from Patrick's article of 2015, here are some further comments regarding Greece's ongoing financial troubles

Looking at the newspaper this morning I could not help but experience a feeling of déjà vu when reading that my favourite zombie country Greece had failed to secure a deal to unlock the next instalment of its multi billion euro bailout after lengthy talks with finance ministers of the Eurozone broke down.

Readers may recall that we published an article on 16th July 2015 under the heading “If Greece were a Company” dealing with the country’s financial woes.

Things don’t appear to have improved. Gross Domestic Product fell by 0.1% in the first quarter of 2017 after a reduction of 1.2% in the last three months of 2016. Earlier this month statistics released indicated that Greece had fallen into recession for the first time since 2012. Hardly making a good case for borrowing more money one would think.

The purpose of the meeting was to decide whether Greece had enacted sufficient economic reforms to receive a 7.5bn Euro loan (plus some debt relief)

By the way, this current loan is vital for Greece to avoid defaulting on a debt repayment due in July. You must forgive my cynicism but since when do you lend a debtor money to make a loan repayment. The loan will naturally be granted as a default would severely damage the Euro and the whole of the EU.

It is believed that Greece’s external debt amounts to 240bn Euros (soon to be 247.5bn!)

*Album by Crosby Stills Nash & Young March 1970