Comunicado da LYMEC sobre a situação financeira grega

Greece’s budget shortfall is now estimated at 12.7% of GDP last year, after Eurostat recently accused Athens of "deliberate misreporting" making its deficit appear smaller. The country nowadays is rated with BBB+, an alarming low rating for a Eurozone member state. Such an excessive deficit and rapidly rising debt could have spill-over effects for the whole euro zone.

Aloys Rigaut, LYMEC President, commented: 'Greece wrote the tragedy in which it is now and will need to get out of it by its own means. There is no way that we can mutualise at Eurozone level the price of the public finances repair. It would set a bad precedent for other Euro countries”. He then added: “We should however learn from this turmoil. One key element is to broaden the EU’s surveillance to macroeconomic imbalances. Despite repeated warnings, some imbalances were indeed not treated at a time when economic conditions were favourable and the crisis is now forcing a brutal adjustment: this is not tolerable. Euro area national economies are becoming more and more interdependent and we cannot accept any form of free riding'.

Alexander Plahr, LYMEC Vice President, stated: 'The Greek debacle is no reason to condemn the euro project, which is one of the best achievements of the European Union ever. The real lesson is that we have to watch much more carefully if a country is already ready for the Euro. Athens has under-reported its deficits for a decade, including the time in which it had to qualify for euro-zone membership, a fact Eurostat discovered only later. Greece's way out of the crisis is not to ask for European generosity but to get its public finances in order. This means cutting spending and vitalizing the economy by cutting red tape, tax cuts and deregulation, so that it actually can grow.'

http://www.lymec.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=749