Once again (when will it all end!) the troika has got its forecasts wrong.
“Greece’s central government budget had a deficit of ?813m at the end of February, deputy finance minister Christos Staikouras has told reporters.”
Of course the troika will say this is all the fault of the Greek government not doing the job properly. And the answer? More taxes on those Greeks who do pay their taxes. However, the reason for the short fall is that under conditions of nearly 30% unemployment, deep continuing recession, the economy has come to a standstill and can no longer yield the budgeted revenue.
VAT revenue has dropped to the abyss because consumption has dropped to bare necessities. Now, for all their faults, that is not the government’s fault but the fault of the brutal stringent austerity being imposed. The troika says ok, never mind, just continue the debilitating tax on property paid through the electricity bill. Despite the fact that over 600,000 households (and rising) have already had their electricity cut off because the can’t even pay the bill for electricity, let alone the exorbitant tax on their humble homes.
Greece has simply been wrung completely dry. There is no economy left to speak of. However high the troika in all its brilliance and the Greek government in theirs decided to hike taxes, the budget will still have a deficit, the social security funds will run dry because the people able to pay dues have dropped by over half, and Greece’s debt remains completely unsustainable.
Whether Greece leaves the Euro or not, it will default on its debt, in an orderly or most likely disorderly way. Pensions will stop being paid, because funds will dry up. People no longer have enough income to pay for heating, or medicine (because state funds for health have also been strangled), so really, where is the sense in all this?
Apart from a sadistic puritan pleasure in watching “sinners” suffer, by the holier than though pack, I simply cannot see what any of this is in aid of.