Greeks Unimpressed With Bailout Exit Celebrations

Greek and European officials on Monday hailed the country's official exit from its third and final bailout as a historic moment but to ordinary Greeks, austerity is here to stay.

Athens, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Aug, 2018 ) :Greek and European officials on Monday hailed the country's official exit from its third and final bailout as a historic moment but to ordinary Greeks, austerity is here to stay.

"I think the bailout program finished only in paper, in practice it still exists and it will exist for many more years to come under stringent surveillance," argued Yannis Simaressis, a 59-year-old economist.

Greece has already legislated new pension and tax break cuts for 2019 and 2020 and will remain under international supervision for several years.

The loss of a quarter of Greece's national output over eight years, the emigration of some 300,000 of the country's best and brightest and unemployment of around 20 percent leave little to celebrate.

"It was nightmarish," said pensioner Theodoros Prassas, speaking of the crisis years.

"It is not only that the income was diminished, but taxes were increased. Property tax, income tax have gone up very much. The immediate taxes have increased very much.

The people can't live any longer," he said.

Another pensioner, Theodoros Karas, said he was "in so much debt where I wake up in the morning and I don't know where to make a plea." "The phone rings and I am asked to do this and that, to settle the loan, settle the debt, they say they will cut my electricity. It's a disgrace," Karas said.

Among European officials, EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici on Monday cautioned that "the reality on the ground remains difficult" but nonetheless praised the bailout exit as "historic".

"Greece will be able to finance itself on (the financial) markets... define its own economic policies all the while following the reforms of course," he told French radio station France Inter Monday.

To sweeten the pill, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said that Greece could start focusing on a "social state".

"Now we have the opportunity to proceed with targeted relief, to proceed with tax reduction in 2019 and to support the social state and welfare," he said.