Dijsselbloem: Greeks Struggling Despite Primary Surplus

The Chairman of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem, speaking in a conference on Europe in the “Hertie School of Governance” in Berlin, Germany, said that although numbers show prosperity, the citizens of countries that have experienced bailout programs still have financial difficulties. “Try to tell a Greek who is struggling to survive that Greece has achieved a primary surplus,” said Dijsselbloem, adding “which to us in the Eurogroup is an important indicator, but what does it tell the people in Greece in real life.” “Try to tell a Spanish citizen who has lost his job, that there is a slight reduction in unemployment in his country, or an Irishman, whose home lost a quarter of its value, that there is a small rise in property prices,” he added speaking at the conference. As he noted, although macroeconomic figures are improving, it’s clear that the EU has a lot of work to do in order to create jobs and achieve sustainable growth. At the same time, he talked about the need to reduce taxes on labor, which he viewed as high. “In almost all eurozone countries we have a tax wedge that is higher than the OECD average,” he said, adding that “the key issue at the moment is simply the return of jobs. The real thing in life that people still feel, such as in Portugal, is massive unemployment. So people ask, will this be jobless growth?”

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