Are we doing well?
The management of public opinion is among the tasks of every government. In a developed democracy one would argue that this management must focus on a continuous and systematic explanation of the government’s strategy for the achievement of explicitly stated goals, so as to dispel confusion and remove unavoidable obstacles to policy making. This, for example, was done by former PASOK premier Costas Simitis when he sought to achieve Greece’s integration into the eurozone – which New Democracy, as the main opposition of the time, had bet would not be achieved. Often, however, the management of public opinion devolves into simple manipulation.
An extreme example of such practice was shown recently with the misleading presentation of an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report on foreign direct investment in Greece. The report shows that FDI fell by 36% in Greece in 2023 compared to the previous year – even less than in 2021. In contrast, profits exported by entrepreneurs to invest in foreign markets exceeded $4 billion, compared to $429 million exported annually in the years 2017-19 and $2.8 billion in the previous two years. The reduction in FDI (largely contextual and not only in Greece) was officially reported as an “investment boom” in the years 2021-23. And the increase in profit flight as “strengthening the Greek economy”! These are not just individual cases of misleading presentation; they are an extreme attempt to embellish the real situation.
Last year’s 2% GDP growth, for example, is advertised as five times the European average, while the fact that it is declining year-on-year is glossed over. Furthermore, whatever GDP growth is achieved is due to the 32 billion euros from the EU Recovery Fund, which ends in two years. What will happen then? International organizations see Greece’s long-term average annual GDP growth in the region of 1%. Why? Because reforms that will actually change “the way work is done” have yet to be carried out. And if they are not done now, when we have the EU Recovery Fund and great liquidity internationally, how will they be done when the economic circumstances turn negative?
The government advertises that the public debt to GDP ratio is falling and it neglects to say that (despite the debt relief of 2012) it reached 406 billion euros last year compared to 304 billion euros at the height of the crisis, and that in 2032 the grace period ends and it will jump by 7 points as a percentage of GDP. And let’s not forget, we are talking about an economy that pays 53% of employees a gross salary of less than 1,000 euros/month, and is a champion in profit inflation, because competition is weak and cartel practices are strong.
It’s worth trying to do better. An elementary condition to achieve this is to see the reality of our economy without distorting lenses, and with a clearer view.
But, since more and more European funds are available to make investments with state-guaranteed returns, why take risks? In other words, why get into trouble when things are going well? It is exactly this reasoning that gets us (and has previously led us) into trouble. Because, it’s starting from the wrong point.
