Macro roundup: Quiet data before elections
Central government budget; employment balance; import prices; industrial turnover
Just a quick roundup today, partly because I’ve been busy writing my report card for the government’s economic performance and partly because it’s been a quiet week for economic releases.
Here’s a summary of what data there was:
The central government posted a primary budget surplus of 2.43 billion euros in the first for months of 2023, compared with a target deficit of 869 million euros.
Net revenue of 21 billion euros was 2.5 billion euros higher than target
There were 123,070 more people starting jobs in March than leaving old jobs, according to the Labour Ministry’s employment balance release.
The import price index in industry dropped 12.7 percent in March from the same month a year earlier.
Industrial turnover increased 1.5 percent in March from a year earlier, compared with 6.8 percent in February.
The rate of increase had reached 54 percent in May of last year.
You probably saw the two posts that went out this week grading the government’s performance. But just in case you missed it, here’s Tuesday’s guest post from Dimitris Valatsas:
Guest post: Grading the Greek government's economic performance
This is a guest post by Dimitris Valatsas, of LGA - Lansberg Gersick Advisors. Dimitris — who has spent over a decade advising global corporates, hedge funds, asset managers and family offices on macroeconomic developments — writes the excellent Macro Letter
And here’s my response, which I sent out a little earlier this afternoon:
Navigating turbulent economic times
Greece is a small country buffeted by economic winds it doesn’t control. So when assessing its macroeconomic performance under the current government — or any government over a four-year period — it’s important to acknowledge that much of what we see is down to the happenstance where the country happens to be in the business cycle, external shocks and p…
Next week’s key releases
Monday, May 22:
March balance of payments (Bank of Greece)
Friday, May 26:
February building activity survey (Elstat)