BackThe Greek economic recovery, in opposition to global trends, has been recognised by the prestigious weekly newspaper The Economist.
The British outlet said that “the past year has been bad for almost everyone” in financial times and “investors have lost out as global stockmarkets have plunged by 15%.” It highlighted that despite “this poor aggregate performance hides wide differences: some countries have done pretty well.”
Explaining that despite the crisis in the early 2010’s which crippled Mediterranean economies, the top of their list is Greece, along with Portugal and Spain who also scored highly.
This is in direct contrast to Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse, and Estonia and Latvia, which won plaudits in the 2010s for speedy reforms, come bottom.
Turkey had done better than most, which The Economist points out is because of their sanctions-busting trade with Russia.
“Thanks to super-strict lockdowns and a collapse in inbound tourism, a year ago much of southern Europe was in dire straits. The region was due a decent year,” the London-based newspaper said.
“Will the gap between 2022’s winners and losers persist in 2023? Before long southern Europe’s economic growth, weighed down by rapidly ageing populations and high debts, will surely fall back to less stellar levels.
“And there are signs that in countries such as America and Britain, high inflation may finally be easing, helping them up the rankings.
“Along other dimensions differences may persist, not least when it comes to those countries reliant on Mr Putin for their energy supplies.
“Against the odds, many such countries did manage to replenish their stores of natural gas before winter—but only by paying outrageous prices. With supplies now largely cut off, 2023 will be a lot more difficult.
“That will be a concern in the Baltics, but less so on the other side of Europe. It is hard to worry about gas supplies while eating a giant plate of squid on an Ibicencan beach.”
The Economist compiled data on five economic and financial indicators—gdp, inflation, inflation breadth, stockmarket performance and government debt—for 34 mostly rich countries. They ranked each economy according to how well it has done on each measure, creating an overall score.
The table below shows the ranking, and includes some unexpected results.
