I was once again browsing through AMECO data
and thought that taking a look at how Greece has fared over the years (growth-wise),
from 1960 till today, would be interesting. The result is the following post
where I have plotted all decades’ GDP growth together.
To get a better sense of the international setting
of each decade I plotted Greece’s growth rates against other Med countries
whose position in the development spectrum is closer to ours than other Euro
Area nations.
The current post has the potential to be
considered politicized and since this was not my intention when plotting the
charts, I will go light on the words.
 |
| source: AMECO, own calculations |
In the 60s Greece was the fastest grower out of
the other southern European countries featured in the chart.
 |
| source: AMECO, own calculations |
In the 70s too, Greece again grew,
cumulatively, faster than the other 3 countries. Along with the 60’s, the 70s
were the easy part of the catch-up growth phase for Greece and easy growth ran
its course with’ em.
 |
| source: AMECO, own calculations |
In the 80s Greece, was by far, the laggard
among the four. This was Greece’s version of a lost decade. All other countries
advanced at an almost even pace.
 |
| source: AMECO, own calculations |
In the 90s
Greece grew faster that the previous decade with
Italy being the group's laggard.
 |
| source: AMECO, own calculations |
In the
00s, Greece was once more the growth leader of the group, with Italy and
Portugal muddling through their own versions of a lost decade. Not going to
expand on the reasons behind that particular growth-spurt in Greece, I’ve done
so on numerous older posts.
 |
| source: AMECO, own calculations |
I don’t need to say that the current decade is
nightmare-ish for Greece and that we’re experiencing a full-blown depression
since we’ve all been feeling this to out bones.
 |
| source: AMECO,own calculations |
Well, that’s a wrap ladies and gents. This one
was not a words-heavy post but I hope that you found the charts interesting. I currently
am a bit rusty on the writing side since I don’t write much (or at all) lately
so be patient with my posts. Cheers…
P.S. I called the 80s and not the current one, Greece’s
lost decade, not because the jury is still out but because this one will be
awfully worse.
