Greece GDP growth is a tactical success but a strategic disaster

by Shaun Richards

Yesterday the Eurogroup made a statement lauding the economic progress made by Greece.

We welcome the confirmation by the institutions that Greece is projected to comfortably meet the primary surplus target of 3,5% of GDP for 2019. We also welcome the adoption of a budget for 2020, which is projected to ensure the achievement of the primary surplus target and which includes a package of growth-friendly measures aimed at reducing the tax burden on capital and labour. Greece has also made significant progress with broader structural reforms, notably in the area of the labour market, digital governance, investment licensing and the business environment.

Actually of course this is another form of punishment beating as we note that the depression ravaged Greek economy will find 3.5% of GDP subtracted from it each year. It is hard not to then laugh at the mention of “growth-friendly” measures. Moving to reform well this all started in the spring of 2010 so why is reform still needed? Indeed the next bit seems to suggest not much has been done at all.

 It will be crucial for Greece to maintain, and where necessary accelerate, reform momentum going forward, including through determined implementation of reforms on all levels. Against this background, we welcome that the Greek authorities reiterated their general commitment to continue the implementation of all key reforms adopted under the ESM programme, especially as regards the reduction of arrears to zero, recruitments in the public sector and privatisations.

Anyway they are going to give Greece some of the interest and profits they have taken off it back.

Subject to the completion of national procedures, the EWG and the EFSF Board of Directors are expected to approve the transfer of SMP-ANFA income equivalent amounts and the reduction to zero of the step-up interest margin on certain EFSF loans worth EUR 767 million in total.

What about the economy?

We have reached the stage I have long feared where any improvement is presented as a triumph. This ignores two things which is how bad matters got and how long it has taken to get here. Or to put it another way Christine Lagarde was right to describe it as “shock and awe” when she was French finance minister but in the opposite way to what she intended.

Manufacturing

This week’s PMI survey from Markit was quite upbeat.

November PMI® survey data signalled a quicker improvement in operating conditions across the Greek manufacturing sector. Overall growth was supported by sharper expansions in output and new orders. Stronger domestic and foreign client demand led to a faster rise in workforce numbers and a greater degree of business confidence.

The reading of 54.1 is really rather good at a time when many other countries are reporting declines although of course the bit below compares to a simply dreadful period.

The rate of overall growth was solid and among the sharpest seen over the last decade.

However there was some good news in a welcome area too.

In response to greater new order volumes, Greek
manufacturers expanded their workforce numbers at a steep pace that was the quickest for seven months.

Also there was some optimism for next year.

Our current forecasts point towards a faster expansion in industrial production in 2020, with the rate of growth expected to pick-up to 1.1% year-on-year.

Sadly though if we look at the previous declines even at such a rate before Maxine Nightingale would be happy.

We gotta get right back to where we started from

Retail Trade

If we switch to the official data we see that the recent news looks good.

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The Overall Volume Index in retail trade (i.e. turnover in retail trade at constant prices) in September 2019, increased by 5.1%, compared with the corresponding index of September 2018, while, compared with the corresponding index of August 2019, decreased by 3.9%

So in annual terms strong growth which should be welcomed. But having followed the situation in Greece for some time I know that the retail sector collapsed in the crisis. So we need to look back and if we stay with September we see that the index ( 2015=100) was 144.5 in 2009 and 129.3 in 2010 whereas this year it was 107.3. In fact looking back the peak in September was in 2006 at 167.1 so as you can see here is an extraordinary depression which brings the recent growth into perspective.

Indeed the retail sector was one of the worst affected areas.

Trade

This is one way of measuring the competitiveness of an economy and of course is the area the International Monetary Fund used to prioritise before various French leaders thought they knew better. After such a long depression you might think the situation would be fixed but no.

The deficit of the Trade Balance, for the 9-month period from January to September 2019 amounted to 16,500.5 million euros (18,313.6 million dollars) in comparison with 15,390.6 million euros (18,139.7 million dollars) for the corresponding period of the year 2018, recording an increase, in euros, of 7.2%.

However there is a bright spot which we find by switching to the Bank of Greece.

A rise in the surplus of the services balance is due to an improvement primarily in the travel balance and secondarily in the transport and other services balance. Travel receipts and non-residents’ arrivals increased by 14% and 3.8% year-on-year respectively. In addition, transport (mainly sea transport) receipts rose by 5.5%.

Shipping and tourism are traditional Greek businesses and the impact of the services sector improves the situation quite a bit.

In the January-September 2019 period, the current account was almost balanced, while a €1.4 billion deficit was recorded in the same period of 2018. This development reflects mainly a rise in the services surplus and also an improvement in the primary and the secondary income accounts, which more than offset an increase in the deficit of the balance of goods.

In fact tourism has played an absolute blinder for both the trade position and the economy.

In January-September 2019, the balance of travel services showed a surplus of €14,032 million, up from a surplus of €12,507 million in the same period of 2018. This development is attributed to an increase, by 14.0% or €1,976 million, in travel receipts, which were only partly offset by travel payments, up by 28.0% or €450 million.

GDP

Today has brought the latest GDP data from Greek statistics.

The available seasonally adjusted data indicate that in the 3rd quarter of 2019 the Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) in volume terms increased by 0.6% in comparison with the 2nd quarter of 2019, while
in comparison with the 3rd quarter of 2018, it increased by 2.3%.

The story here is of export driven growth which provides some hope. The domestic economy shrank with consumption 0.4% lower and investment 5% lower on a quarterly basis whereas there was this on the external side.

Exports of goods and services increased by 4.5% in comparison with the 2nd quarter of 2019……….Imports of goods and services increased by 0.6% in comparison with the 2nd quarter of 2019.

Comment

At first it looks extraordinary that the Greek domestic economy could shrink on a quarterly basis but then of course we need to remind ourselves that the fiscal policy described at the beginning of this article is extraordinarily contractionary. So in essence the recovery seems to be depending rather a lot on the tourism industry. I also note that if we look at the Euro area data there is an unwelcome mention in the employment section.

The largest decreases were observed in Lithuania (-1.2%), Romania (-1.1%), Finland (-0.5%) and Greece (-0.3%).

Not what you would hope for in a recovery period.

Switching to an idea of the scale of the depression we see that in the latest quarter GDP was 49 billion Euros, compared to the previous peak in the spring of 2007 of 63.3 billion Euros ( 2010 prices). So more than 12 years later still nearly 23% lower. That is what you call a great depression and at the current rate of growth it will be quite some time before we get right back where Greece started from.

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