Skilakakis on Liberalism: The Economy is Advancing, But the Opposition is Elsewhere!

the Good course of the economydescribed by the main indicators achieved by the New Democracy government in the past four years.

the growth rate where is he The Road by European averagethe significant increase in investments, the decrease in interest rates on bonds, which in recent weeks have been systematically lower than Italy (a country with an investment rating), the seriousness of and despite the unprecedented crises, the reduction of public debt as a percentage of GDP, the achievement of a primary surplus Much earlier than expected, and inflation that unfortunately affects households, but is currently among the lowest in Europe, describes a self-evident positive trend Ha Greek economy.

the opposition He describes this positive path, which is recognized by all international organizations and above all by the markets themselves, as “disastrous”. At the same time, he makes promises of tens of billions that have nothing to do with economic reality. Ignoring the logical paradox (the nature of populism that characterizes SYRIZA and PASOK today), you cannot talk about the disastrous course of the economy at the same time as making outrageous financial promises …

Aside from pathologically extravagant promises, the only other thing the opposition offered in the pre-election debate in this election was its tax sympathy for business and a talk drawn from the depths of the 1980s about reducing inequality by taxing profits. Despite the fact that the experience of the last decade has shown that in Greece in particular, inequality is not only about the separation between low and high income.

For the simple reason that a significant part of the income is not taxed because of it Extensive tax evasion resulting in direct taxes disproportionately affecting consistent taxpayers (who pay them), while the welfare state also works in favor of tax evaders. The reason is that while they earn a lot of money from the informal economy, they also receive benefits that normally should only go to the socially vulnerable who are denied them.

This ideological and political ambiguity of the opposition has kept the political debate away from the most important problems that the Greek economy will have to face in the coming years. In particular, the opposition had nothing to say about the need to continue attracting investments, since the coverage of the catastrophic investment gap assumed by the government in 2019 (with investments of just over 10% of GDP) has not yet been completed. This year we will pass 15% of GDP, but it will take a lot of effort to go from 15% to 22% which is the European average, with reforms that must continue consistently at multiple levels to keep investment momentum going.

At the same time, in order for investments to continue, the economy will have to solve the problem of lack of qualified human resources, which is presented with an unemployment level of 10.9%, while Greece has great potential to increase its labor force which reduces the economically inactive population (people of working age who are not looking for work);

The percentage in our country is 29.8% compared to eg. with 21.3% in Cyprus.

Given that we are asking the labor market to support a very important new investment, it is clear that one of the biggest challenges facing the next government will be to motivate more people in the labor market, especially women, young people and somewhat older people who want to. Work and face obstacles and disincentives. Here, the policies being implemented by New Democracy, for example to facilitate women with childcare facilities and extended school hours, the new focus on vocational education and training are certainly important steps in the right direction.

But the problem as a whole has not yet been resolved. A problem closely related to reduce the informal economy, Which locks too many young people (and not only) into jobs with low productivity and little added value to the economy and to themselves. While it is crucial that young people enter the white economy as early as possible because that way they can quickly build serious work experience and progress towards higher wages and greater productivity.

For all these complex and complex problems, The New Republic as a government Policies developed It is clear that he will have a lot to do in the next four years if – I hope – he wins a secure and stable parliamentary majority.

But it’s a shame opposition To be somewhere else where the substance of economic policy is not discussed before elections and we have to engage in committees with the commendable task of explaining the absurdity. In other words, we have to explain to Syriza one dimension memorial contractthat it cannot have a program ten times larger than the available financial space and PASOK that a program without cost is not a program but is vulnerable to worthless ideas.