Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Greece GDP surely will take hits as shown by the articles referenced

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/there-goes-greek-gdp-nazional-lampoons-greek-vacation-just-got-cancelled


There Goes Greek GDP: Nazional Lampoons Greek Vacation Just Got Cancelled

Tyler Durden's picture




As if the Greeks haven't suffered enough from Northern European actions (admittedly in response to their own actions), it seems the anti-German sentiment is keeping the wealthy tourists away from the beaches. As Reuters notes today, 'German tourists are in short supply in Greece these days, frightened away by reports of visceral anti-German sentiment in some places'.  Data for the main summer holiday season shows pre-bookings from Germany down by some 30 percent. We guess the pictures of Molotov cocktails being thrown, city-wide strikes, and cardboard cities full of unemployed youths was too much but as one Greek tourist-shop-owner clarified "They're not coming because of the problems. But we don't have a problem with German people, only their government." Tourism - the one remaining possibility for Greece to drag themselves out of the quagmire (aside from olive oil and yoghurt) - is now under pressure as The Germans ("That's just the way Germans are: if there's trouble in some country, then Germans just don't go there on their holidays.") wage "an economic war against Greece". Sadly the xenophobic and nationalist tensions are indeed rising (as we warned many times in the past - and suggest will be the ultimate undoing of the political compact in Europe) as the crisis had revived anti-German sentiment from World War Two that most thought had long since disappeared. "The Greeks moved on and tried to forget, then this. If you ask me, Germany owes Greece billions for all the murders and war crimes. Germany should pay Greece what it owes."
and....

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_25/04/2012_439338

Cruise benefit delay

By Nikos Bardounias
The delay in the vote on the law for lifting restrictions on cruise schedules means Greece will miss out on not one but two years of the industry’s benefits as 2012 and 2013 itineraries have already been drawn up.
Major cruise firms will not start performing circular cruises around Greece with local ports for their home porting, according to members of the Greek Association of Cruise Shipowners and Shipping Bodies.
Experts say that once the benefits of the open cruise market are fully tapped, Greece can expect revenues of 1 billion euros per year, as well as 18,000 new jobs, according to a Hellenic Chamber of Shipping study.
Global players such as Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Costa, Celebrity and MSC are also interested in investing in port infrastructure.

and....

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_19403_25/04/2012_439333

Incomes fall by a quarter in a year

 OECD report says Greeks pay too much on social security contributions, but little on salary tax
By Prokopis Hatzinikolaou and Leonidas Stergiou
Real incomes in Greece dropped by a massive 25.3 percent in 2011 from the year before, according to an annual report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which uses data forwarded by the Greek Finance Ministry. It adds that Greek salary workers pay relatively low taxes but high social security contributions.
Maurice Nettley, senior tax policy economist at the OECD, told Kathimerini on Wednesday that the average gross salary in 2011 dropped from 20,457 euros to 15,729 euros. The reduction amounts to 23.1 percent, but actually grows to 25.3 percent when taking inflation into account. After-tax incomes (for unmarried workers) went down by 25.5 percent to 16,180 euros.
The OECD report further notes that Greeks pay particularly high social security contributions, but the tax they pay is among the lowest in the member states of the Organization. In fact, social security contributions are deemed disproportionately high with regard to the service offered by the pension funds.
In total, the share of tax and social security contributions (by employers and employees) amounts to 38 percent of total salary costs. This breaks down to 3 percent for taxes, 12.8 percent for salary workers’ social security contributions and 22.2 percent for the employers’ contributions to the funds.
The OECD report argues that taxes in employment are harmful to growth. It adds that governments that need to collect more revenues should focus on reducing tax exemptions on matters such as pension contributions and mortgage loan interest, as well as exemptions from tax on sales that are less harmful.
Meanwhile Finance Minister Filippos Sachinidis stated on Wednesday that, “obviously, had the fiscal adjustment process been less abrupt, the impact on growth would have been smaller, and a slightly longer period of fiscal streamlining would also have had a smaller effect on growth.” However he added that such an option would require more funding than that which is currently available for Greece.

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