Greece: New year, old debts?
European Parliament Budget Committee member Siegfried Muresan speaks about the country’s place in the eurozone.
It might be 2010 all over again, because Greece and its ever-burgeoning debt is coming back into focus.
We will get it right, and Greece will stay in the eurozone - this is my message to people all around the world, investors and all those who care about Greece.
It may have emerged from a six-year recession, but the prospect of victory for the country’s far-left, anti-austerity opposition party Syriza in snap elections later this month threatens a new crisis for the eurozone.
Syriza’s leader Alexis Tsipras has promised to write off some of Greece’s $322bn worth of debt – a grand and dramatic gesture, but behind it is the truth that Greece just cannot live with this sort of burden. But Tsipras’ idea is something one of the country’s biggest creditors is not willing to contemplate.
In fact, Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel has let it be known that she is quite happy for Greece to leave the eurozone, in the so-called “Grexit” scenario.
But Berlin actually needs Greece and the eurozone intact: Without the euro, the economy would shrink by half a percentage point a year to 2025. That is a loss of $1.4tn, with 200,000 fewer jobs.
So, will Greece leave the eurozone? How big a threat is a Greek exit to Germany and the whole eurozone?
Siegfried Muresan, from the European Parliament Budget Committee joins Counting the Cost to discuss Greece’s place in the eurozone, the arguments for and against a Greek eurozone exit, and its impact on the German economy.