Figures for the Greek economy between 2008 and 2016 show a shocking decline in practically all economic parameters, with the crisis judged as unprecedented for a developed country that is not afflicted by military conflict or natural disaster.
According to data released this week by the Greek statistical service (EL.STAT), investments, personal incomes and private consumption all tanked, beginning in 2008 and continuing into the subsequent years of near bankruptcy, three bailout agreements with institutional creditors, three bank recapitalizations and even “flirtation” with “Grexit” six months into the leftist Tsipras government’s disastrous negotiations with lenders in the summer of 2015.
Greek GDP reached 175.888 billion euros in 2016, marginally up (190 million euros) from the previous year, 2015, the “annus horribilis” of the entire crisis. The figure, however, is 66.103 billion euros less than in the spendthrift year of 2008, or down 27.3 percent, and even lower than in 2003.
The value of GDP volume is calculated in current rates.
One glimmer of hope was the marginal increase in GDP, between 2015 and 2016, the first time after seven years that the figure rose. Additionally, the 2016 GDP figure is higher, by 908 million euros, than the forecast listed in the state budget for 2017, a development that ameliorated the debt-to-GDP ratio.
In terms of investment expenditure, the 2008-2016 period was marked by a distinct implosion. According to EL.STAT, the expenditure in 2016 to accumulate fixed capital fell to 20.118 billion euros, the lowest figure since 1996.
Compared to 2008, investment in 2013 dropped to 37.5 billion euros, down by 65.1 percent.
Uncertainty over the economic situation, which was characterized by slumping incomes, a surge in unemployment and a free-fall in consumption, plagued the private sector.
Conversely, the export sector appeared to hold its own, as Greece-based businesses and entrepreneurs apparently viewed foreign markets as a “life jacket” to stay afloat amid the punishing recession on the domestic front.
In 2016, for instance, the value of exported goods and services reached 53.037 billion euros, a figure that was lower by three billion euros from 2015, but only by 3.5 billion euros from the heady days of 2008.
Expenditures for imports dropped in 2016 by 1.6 billion from 2015, but down a whopping 32.8 billion euros (37.7 percent) from 2008.
