ATHENS, Greece — Unemployment in Greece hit a record high of 25.1 percent in July as the country's financial crisis continues to exact its heavy toll, official figures showed Thursday.
And all indications are that unemployment
in Greece will continue to rise. The Greek economy has shrunk by around
a quarter since the recession started in 2008 and youth unemployment
has pushed way above 50 percent. The economy is expected to enter a
sixth year of recession next year.
“This is a very dramatic result
of the recession,” said Angelos Tsakanikas, head of research at
Greece’s IOBE economic research foundation.
The state statistics
agency said Greece’s unemployment rate rose from 24.8 percent in June.
According to European statisticians, that would be the same rate as
Spain’s in August.
The two countries have the highest unemployment
rates among the 17 that use the euro. In August, eurozone unemployment
stood at 11.4 percent, itself the highest level since the single
currency was launched in 1999.
Greece’s statistical authority said
1.26 million Greeks were out of work in July, with more than 1,000 jobs
lost every day over the past year. In the worst-affected 15-24 age
group, unemployment was 54.2 percent. In July 2008, a year before
Greece’s acute financial crisis broke, there were only about 364,000
registered unemployed.
After losing access to international money
markets and nearly defaulting on its mountain of debt, Greece has
survived on international bailouts since May 2010.
However,
solvency comes at a harsh price: To secure and continue receiving the
loans, Athens imposed tough austerity measures, such as spending cuts
and tax increases, in an attempt to get its public finances in order.
The
conservative-led government is currently in negotiations with the
country’s creditors over another raft of austerity measures, worth €13.5
billion ($17.4 billion) over the next two years, so it can get the next
batch of bailout funds. Greece has to satisfy certain periodic
conditions in order to qualify for the handouts.
Without the
money, Greece won’t have enough money to pay all its financial
obligations and may end up defaulting on its debts and leaving the euro.
Finance
Minister Yiannis Stournaras will hold talks Thursday evening with
representatives of the European Union, International Monetary Fund and
European Central Bank. The so-called troika has to sign off the package
for the release of the funds.
Some evidence emerged Thursday that
the government’s strategy is working on one front, at least. Finance
Ministry figures showed that the deficit-busting effort is on track
despite lower-than-anticipated revenues.
The ministry said the
January-September deficit was €12.64 billion, lower than the €13.5
billion target. Although revenues were €1.3 billion off target, spending
was €2.2 billion less than budgeted.
