Merijn Knibbe — The 10% of GDP Greek *surplus* on its services trade balance

Yesterday, as part of an attempt to raise the level of discussion about the Eurozone problems, I spent the better part of ten minutes to download a 98 page Excel-file from Eurostat containing data about the last sixteen years of European Union macro economic history. It turns out thatGreece has a surplus of almost 10% of GDP on its ‘international trade in services’ account (among other things: shipping, tourism). That’s a lot by whatever standard and surely when compared with 2% of GDP German deficit. In the EU it is only topped by tiny Malta, Cyprus and Luxembourg. It is caused by the fact that Greece is not only home to one world-class economic sector (tourism) but even to two (the other being shipping), which is a lot for a country the size of Greece....

Real-World Economics Review Blog
The 10% of GDP Greek *surplus* on its services trade balance

Merijn Knibbe

Also

The sting in the tail: there will be another undemocratic ‘federal’ institution, an investmentbank, backed by the ECB. Maybe this institution might, to an extent, make up for the lack of fiscal policy on the Eurozone level, at least by restoring part of the monetary transmission channel, i.e. provide a level playing field when it comes to financing projects in the different countries in the Eurozone. While it might also make up for the present lack of government investment in at least some countries. And it might make the present, asset price increasing, kind of QE superfluous. My idea: the European Parliament will have to get large supervisory powers over this bank....

Is an ECB funded backed a better idea than QE? Varoufakis thinks so.

Zero Hedge — Why Greek Shipping Billionaires Are Sweating

Ironically, Greek shippers knew which way the wind is blowing, and last October the Union of Greek Shipowners reached a voluntary agreement with the previous government to double the tax paid by the industry in the three years from 2014.

Whether that will be enough for the country’s new anti-austerity Syriza-led government isn’t clear. In a February letter to creditor institutions, Greece Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said the new regime will “ensure that all sections of society, and especially the well-off, contribute fairly to the financing of public policies,” as part of reforms that secured the continued availability of bailout funds for Europe’s most indebted country. 

To answer Bloomberg's question, no - it will not be enough. But here Varoufakis will have to make a difficult decision: 

“Shipping together with tourism are the two main sources of income for the country,” said Eurofin’s Zolotas. “The government would be ill-advised to make it less attractive for ship owners to remain in Greece because ship owners are providers of a lot of employment.”

Zero Hedge
Why Greek Shipping Billionaires Are Sweating
Tyler Durden