Dear friends, good day to you all!
There are certain truths that become hard to ignore when everyone starts repeating them.
The European Commission told us this recently. The OECD tells us this from time to time. Now the IOBE is confirming it as well. The Greek economy is growing, but prosperity still does not reach everyone in the same way.
Different economic organizations and institutions. Different starting points. Different methodologies. The same conclusion.
The Greek economy is growing. Greek society is struggling to keep up.
If one were to follow only the government’s celebrations, one might believe that the country is already on a path toward full convergence with Europe. Growth rates exceed the European average. Unemployment has fallen. Investment is rising. Public debt is declining. Rating agencies are upgrading the economy.
All true. But there is a small problem. Citizens do not live by macroeconomic indicators. They live by their family budgets. And there, the picture is far less triumphant.
Greece remains last in the OECD in terms of household savings. Seven out of ten Greeks say they are struggling to make ends meet. Per capita income remains well below the European average. Rents and housing prices are rising faster than incomes. Young people are finding it increasingly difficult to buy their own homes, and the productivity of the Greek economy remains stuck at levels that do not allow for real convergence with Europe.
What is even more interesting is that this is not being said by the opposition. It is being said by the Commission itself.
In its report, it does not dispute the progress that has been made. However, it emphasizes that Greece continues to exhibit low productivity, high regional disparities, a housing crisis, a demographic problem, a lag in innovation, and an inability to translate growth into faster convergence with the rest of Europe.
The IOBE goes a step further. It explains why citizens feel that inequalities are increasing even when the relevant indicators show improvement. Because life isn’t measured solely by the Gini coefficient (a measure of inequality). It’s measured by whether you can rent a home. By whether you can pay your electricity bill. By whether you have to dig deep into your pocket to have decent access to healthcare. By whether your child truly has equal opportunities with other children. By whether you have anything left over at the end of the month or if you’re just scraping by until the next paycheck.
This is precisely where the political debate begins—one that the country systematically avoids. Because growth is not an end in itself. Growth is a tool. The question is not just how much the economy is growing. It is who benefits from it.
When 1% of households account for a disproportionate share of new savings. When asset values rise much faster than wages. When access to housing depends increasingly on parental support and inheritances. When the younger generation sees their lives becoming more expensive without becoming correspondingly more prosperous. Then the problem ceases to be an economic one. It becomes a social one. And later it becomes a political one, a fact that largely explains the ruling party’s standing in the polls, even though that is not the “current” situation
Greece has indeed left the era of the memoranda behind. It has not, however, left the era of inequalities behind. On the contrary, it appears to be entering a new phase, where the fundamental challenge is no longer its fiscal survival but its social cohesion.
That is why the response cannot be jubilation. It cannot be a self-congratulatory invocation of numbers. It cannot be the constant recycling of the same indicators.
When different economic organizations and institutions point to the same problem, the discussion must shift from whether there is a problem to how it will be addressed. Because the indicators may be looking good. But societies are not judged by their indicators. They are judged by whether their citizens feel they are progressing alongside them.
And that, today, remains the big question for Greece.