The German business daily Handelsblatt this week again focused on the Greek economy, pointing to a distinct improvement in certain economic indices but at the same time referring to a “deceptive Greek recovery”.
The Dusseldorf-based media provider mostly centers on the country’s high debt load as a significant challenge.
“Greece has received, since 2010, economic aid of up to nearly 256 billion euros in order to avoid bankruptcy. This sum corresponds nearly to the money received by Portugal, Ireland, Cyprus and Spain together. Yet the crisis has not, in any case, been overcome. Despite the fact that the (Greek) economy is again growing, it is uncertain how Greece will be able to repay its debts,” Handelsblatt writes.
Beyond the debt load, the German daily points to the specter of a massive amount of NPLs hanging over the country’s credit system, as well as banks’ sputtering efforts to sell-off “bad debt” portfolios or to even auction-off properties seized by individuals and companies with millions of euros in arrears.
