The image of the Greek economy may seem attractive and healthy to a significant extent, but despite this there are still concerns about its course in the medium term. Those directly involved in its operation, bankers, businessmen, economists and economists, recognize that the old threats to public finances and public debt are and will be under control at least until 2032, when the country’s favorable debt regulation regime mainly expires from Europe.
Effective
They estimate that until then and to the extent that there are no deviations, particularly populist slippages and temptations of reckless benefits on the part of governments, public finances will be controlled and will not be a source of problems and disturbances.
In particular, it is emphasized by this wider circle that the method followed today of providing aid on a case-by-case basis without assuming permanent obligations is the appropriate and sufficiently effective one, because it simply does not create large areas of increase in costs over time.
However, as we mentioned above, the anxieties remain and are found mainly in the production sector or better in the intended change of the production model, which despite many efforts, the available investment resources of the Recovery Fund and other European funds, the best export performance, the multitude of acquisitions, the occasional waves of restructuring of the private sector and technological upgrades, digital and otherwise, is not thriving, it is not giving the Greek economy the critical size, nor is it offering the required diversification that would allow it to see the future with ambition.
The anxieties
Recently, at the Delphi Forum, there were many relevant reports and remarks from individual figures in the private economy, such as the CEO of Alpha Bank, Vassilis Psaltisthe president of Eurobank, Georgios ZaniasTitan’s CEO, Dimitris Papalexopoulosthe partner of Big Pi Ventures Markos Veremisthe general director of IOBE, professor Nikos Vettas and others.
All of them, each in their own way, accurately described the productive anxieties of the place, the lack of personnel, the redirection of resources and the acquisition of capabilities in all sectors, zero excluded, with the exact aim of creating conditions for a rapid productive transformation of the Greek economy.
As Mr. Psaltis explains to his interlocutors, the issue for the Greek economy is not how it will return to its pre-2008 growth performance, but how it will significantly exceed it, so as to really put Greece on a path of convergence with Europe and create the conditions for a separate development leap that will make it a truly developed country and economy and will insure it against the many and developing risks, energy, geopolitical, climatic, demographic and others.
Reset
The managing director of Alpha Bank believes that in the current environment – and to the extent that there are no dramatic geopolitical developments on the critical war fronts of Ukraine and the Middle East – Greece will be able to bring the Gross National Product back to the 240 billion euro area which it had achieved in 2007, that is, before the great financial crisis, which plunged it into a long-lasting unprecedented economic crisis, threatened it with bankruptcy and reduced its national product by almost 30%.
The crucial thing, according to Mr. Psaltis, is not how the Greek economy will regain 240 billion euros, but how it will jump to 400 billion euros and develop into a really strong and reckonable economic force in this very special geographical area of Southeast Mediterranean.
He believes that such a thing can be strategically achieved, if all domestic forces, political, banking, business and social, coordinate among themselves, insist on the reformist line of major cuts and changes, which will give real content to the modernization of the country with an independent and speedy Justice, modern technologically advanced Education, decent health, secured and adequately supported property rights and a state that will facilitate and not hinder healthy business activity.
The banks
Mr. Psaltis acknowledges that the banks must redefine their actions, play a leading role in the regeneration and growth of small and medium-sized enterprises, and support the productive restructuring of the country as a whole, without exceptions, that is, without privileged relationships in individual sectors.
He is of the opinion that all productive sectors, from tourism, construction and industry, to the agricultural sector and the production of new technological goods and services, must receive the same attention, so that they coordinate and act in a complementary way for the another adding advantages to each.
A fact which, if achieved, can strengthen the attractiveness of the Greek economy, favor the attraction of foreign investments and of course multiply the claim of Greek values by transnational investment schemes and funds, with all that this entails for its overall progress.
Common stance
In order to achieve the above goals, the managing director of Alpha Bank does not hide that the business world owes a unified representation, a unified expression or otherwise a common attitude towards the major issues and problems and issues that concern the Greek economy and society.
According to him, business operators could consolidate a front of healthy assertion towards the state that will work out positions, will be positioned with evidence on major issues and problems, such as those of development, fiscal stability, taxation, energy costs, infrastructure, the distribution of resources, Education, Justice, property rights critical for commercial operations and transactions and others.
This is a broader concern that now permeates the country’s economic universe and goes beyond the typical and usually overly optimistic government messages. It remains to be seen, however, whether the wider economic, business and banking sectors can indeed play, if not a guiding, at least a supporting role in achieving the claimed growth leap to 400 billion a year…
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