At the Greek Ministry of Finance, we were impatiently awaiting the news. On the evening of Friday, October 20, the rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) announced the long-awaited decision: Greece’s rating went from BB+ to BBB-. A technical gesture, but extremely symbolic: thirteen years after being lowered to the status of junk bond (“junk bond”), i.e. the riskiest category, Greece officially returns to the category investment grade (“investable” category). “It is essentially symbolic, recognizes George Christopoulos, the secretary general of the Ministry of Finance, but I don’t believe that any other country has managed to return to it so quickly. »
After a historic depression, during which the Greek economy collapsed by 28%, Athens finally seems to have turned the page. First there was the crisis (2008-2016), then stabilization (2017-2020) and, since the end of the pandemic, the return to growth. This year, despite inflation which has eroded purchasing power, it should reach 2.5%. As for unemployment, which peaked at 28% in 2013, it has fallen to 11%.
“Oh, the Greek economy is doing better? », wonders Giorgia Tabaki, in mid-October. The story of this forty-year-old with metal-rimmed glasses tells of the long impoverishment of the Greeks over the past fifteen years. In 2008, she traveled around Greece decorating bathroom store windows. Thanks to generous commissions on sales, she earned nearly 4,000 euros per month net.
Two years later, with the crisis, she lost her job. She works in a supermarket chain and receives 1,900 euros net per month. “I changed everything: my apartment, my way of consuming, my life…” Because of her work, she developed tendinitis problems in her arms and she had to stop this summer. She is now a taxi driver. “It’s true, the economy is doing better than in 2022, but it’s doing much worse than fifteen years ago. »
“Worse than the American depression of 1929”
The statistics prove him right. Today, the Greek economy remains 20% below its 2007 peak (by comparison, the Eurozone is 12% above). “What Greece experienced is worse than the American depression of 1929, recalls Dimitri Papalexopoulos, the president of SEV, the Greek employers. The fall in the economy was similar [28 % en Grèce, 29 % aux Etats-Unis], but it lasted longer [quatre ans aux Etats-Unis, 1929-1933, huit ans en Grèce, 2008-2016]. » In 2007, Greece’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita reached three-quarters of that of France; today it is a little more than half.
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