Most economists "serious" enjoyed by insisting that Greek economic crisis is the result of a set of own natural ineffectiveness of the Hellenes. The thesis is the claim that workers have been living in recent years a constant and outrageous "party", a veritable banquet characterized by systematic "inordinate wage increases" in the context of an "excessive spending."
ashamed of these increases would have overthrown the country's productivity in relation to its major trading partners. All this would be the result of "inefficient labor, vague and especially addicted to the strikes." Thus the solution would be found immediately correcting wages and reduce public spending to reduce fiscal deficit, stabilize public finances, restoring external competitiveness and face in that way paying your debt mountain. The same diagnosis and the same recipe as the International Monetary Fund and its supporters have been giving for decades around the world with its known disastrous consequences. As expected, the reality is very different to how they raise and therefore the numbers of the Greek economy express the exact opposite of what the gentlemen of the IMF preach. Let's see what those numbers and landslides myths of Greece have created to justify the draconian setting its workers today are bearing.
Myth 1: "The adjustment is necessary because there was inordinate wage increases"
When argues that wage increases were unconscionable is forwarded directly to the increase was greater than that of labor productivity. One of the most effective and concrete to what extent this is true, the extent to which wage increases would be "unconscionable" is used indicator Real Unit Labour Cost (Real Unit Labour Cost). The same total compensation associated with workers with its productivity to yield accurate measure of how much is paid to workers in relation to what they produce (productivity). That is, a wage increase does not correspond to increases in labor productivity would increase labor costs and would involve a loss of competitiveness.
To the surprise of the sponsors of this idea (or maybe not) when we look at the data we see clearly that the labor cost was falling over the last years. Greece has been showing since 2003, labor productivity increases that consistently exceed wage increases. While this trend is reversed after the crisis, all euro area countries show the same dynamic. That is, this last increase of labor cost is not particular to the Greek case, but is manifest across the board.
Measured by this indicator, Greece is a very competitive, even beating a country the size of Germany.
This shows that the Greek worker produces more cheaply than the average worker in the euro zone and even the German. In short, there is no reason to justify an adjustment of wages to "compensate" the productivity gap.
Myth 2: "In Greece, workers are less productive and lazy"
When we measure labor productivity per hour worked, in 2000-2007 we find that Greece was one of the fastest growing countries . Not only had an approach to the euro zone average, but even gained positions on other countries in the area.
could
make a global analysis and use the REER index. The index measures the competitiveness of the country with its main competitors in the international market. An increase in the index indicates a loss of competitiveness. As we see, in recent years the Greek economy showed no significant losses, but is at the top.
can reach the same conclusions by analyzing all types of productivity indicators. Since we measure by unit labor costs, hourly labor productivity, REER index or GDP growth per capita, the conclusion is the same: the labor market is very competitive and the dynamics of the evidence above average growth in the euro zone.
Tan false, unsubstantiated and ludicrous is the argument of "vagrancy" Greek gives us the opportunity to finish it off with the following graph, where we see that it is precisely the Greek workers who work the hardest.
Myth 3: "The adjustment is necessary because Greece has a public spending too much benefit and workers'
At this point it is not difficult to imagine that the numbers say the exact opposite: spending Greece's public was always lower in terms of percentage of GDP than the average for the euro area, as well as the percentage of product that is worn by workers.
Myth 4: "The Greek debt is the result of a state too big"
both the eurozone and Greece were reducing their debt ratios to GDP in recent years . This trend is modified from the 2008 crisis, when evidence an identical percentage change in both.
As we see, increasing the level of debt is a phenomenon that originates with the crisis and widespread. But to what caused this change?
What gentlemen remember is omitted IMF bailout billionaire who made Greece in 2008, when 28,000 million euros of public accounts were injected into the banking system to save it. And it is this bailout which explains much of the crisis.
To this must be added an additional factor, related this time it with particular phenomena of the Greek economy.
to the crisis of 2008 Greece had a growth rate well above the central countries of the euro area. But from of the crisis, the product remains strongly behind, showing a production structure is highly dependent on external shocks.
With the recession, revenues of all governments fell, but especially in Greece, whose growth is closely associated with tourism. Greece attracts around 18 million tourists each year, contributing 15% of GDP and 15% hold jobs. In 2009, tourism was the worst fall in 15 years. An important element was the devaluation of sterling against the euro, which urged the tourism for the English, who represent the largest share of visitors.
But beyond this, it is important to understand that in no way Greek workers responsible for this crisis. The adjustment applied on them is nothing that "socializing the losses" in every crisis the people must endure. If Greece had in recent years a party workers were not invited.