Greek economy up 25% - with a little help from prostitutes

· Athens adds black market output to its GDP figures
· Move staves off EU fines for breaking deficit rules

Nicholas Watt in Brussels
Saturday September 30, 2006
The Guardian

Greece, whose ancient civilisation introduced the world to high class prostitutes in the sixth century BC, has at last decided to salute their contribution to society.

Athens has announced that its economy is 25% bigger than thought thanks, in part, to the round-the-clock duties of the country's prostitutes, who were known as hetairai in ancient times.

The Greek authorities are revising the country's gross domestic product (GDP) after deciding that the black market should be included in the figures.

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Manolis Kontopyrakis, the head of the national statistics service, told Reuters: "The revised GDP will include some money from illegal activities, such as money from cigarette and drinks smuggling, prostitution and money laundering."

Greece's economic output was €180bn (£128bn) in 2005 and is expected to rise to €194bn this year. The black economy is estimated at up to €60bn, according to Reuters.

The new figures are the result of Greece's determination to avoid a ticking off from the EU, which has the right to impose hefty fines on a eurozone country if its budget deficit rises above 3% of GDP. By boosting the size of its economy the Greek deficit will fall from 2.1% of GDP to 1.9%. Without the change the deficit would have fallen from 2.6% of GDP to 2.4%, according to the Financial Times.

Joaquim Almunia, the European monetary affairs commissioner, who is used to GDP revisions of 1%-2%, is said to be wary of Greece's action.

His spokeswoman said yesterday that the new figures would need to be examined by Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency.

The move raised eyebrows in Brussels because Athens famously used false statistics to meet the Maastricht criteria, thereby allowing it to join the euro. Charles Grant, the director of the Centre for European Reform, said: "It is on the public record that the statistics used which allowed Greece to join the euro were exposed as false. I remember Jacques Delors [the former European commission president] saying in the early 1990s that Greece was not ready to join the EU in 1981."

But Mr Grant said Greece should be taken more seriously now. "There was a real transformation in the mid-1990s. They cleared up corruption and spent EU funds wisely.

"The announcement reminds me of the sorpasso a decade ago when Italy said that it had overtaken the UK because it was counting the black economy in its statistics. That was taken seriously but Britain is now way ahead of Italy."

While the new figures will allow Greece to escape possible fines for running a high deficit, the country will pay for its honesty in other ways.

"Greece will be a victim because it will lose structural funds and will have to pay more into the EU budget," Mr Grant said. "I think we should therefore take them seriously."



I have to say that the real enemies of our nation are not as obvious as we think they are!!!!!!!!

Tabloid headlines in UK's newspapers.

Guardian headline:

Financial Times headline:

So much for serious journalism in UK...

Kathimerini puts the issue of Greek GDP revision into perspective.

Every other country in the EU has done this. We were the last.

Yes,but they didn't make it a whole matter with this kind of newspaper headings....Of course, in the end, we have to say that we should be proud about it.....we know how to satisfy our women on the contrary with them,that every summer all of their wifes and daughters are going to greece to have some really "good time"....that's also why we respect and recognise the oldest profession in the world!!! :headbang: (can you please find me some english people for the forum??I have quite loads to discuss with them!!!! :battered: :battered: ) :roflmao:

Prostitutes are booming in Australia. :drink2:

To many ladies here playing hard to get. :lol:

Indeed, objectivity in journalism is the trump card. The British know that better than others.

The British media is the most anti-Greek in the world. Never miss a chance to put down Greece or Greeks.

And what might be the rationale behind that ?

For several reasons:

1. The British have become America's poodle in Europe. American foreign policy in the near east is, for several reasons, pro-Turkish. As a consequence, they tend to be anti-Greek on the issues where both nations confront each other: the Aegean, Cyprus, Kosovo, FYROM, etc.. The British echo Washington's anti-Greek position. In the EU, Britain has done everthing they can to promote Turkey's EU accession and to prevent Cyprus from requiring Turkey to even meet all the requirements of accession. The Brits have tried to water down any resolutions punishing Turkey or insisting they recognize Cyprus.

2. Cyprus. British covet their bases in Cyprus and always have. They were the ones who stirred up problems between Greek and Turkish Cypriots in order to hold onto those bases when the GC's were agitating for independence in the early 1960's. The old 'Divide and Conquer' which the Brits have used so many times in their history-India, Pakistan and China to name a few.

3. Cyprus again-British citizens are probably the biggest purchasers of stolen Greek Cypriot property in north Cyprus. British expats have been buying it up as retirement property by the thousands. Cherie Blair, the ex-PM's wife, recently represented (she's an attorney) a group of British landowners in north Cyprus in a lawsuit filed by the rightful Greek Cypriot owners of the property. She was paid 300,000 Pounds Sterling to represent this group and she won the case (it was appealed successfully because even the British High Court couldn't abide the 'Home Town Ruling' of the British judge). There is a lot of British money tied up in north Cyprus, trust me.

For these reasons and others the Brits tend to oppose Athens and Nicosia a lot of the time. The Brit media has taken a cue from their government and tends to be anti-Greek whenever they can. Rarely are their upbeat articles about Greece or Cyprus in the British media, but there are often critical articles. Believe me on this, I've tracked their performance very closely.

The Brits have become (in the last 40-50 years anyway) anti-Hellenic bastards. No nation, not even the US, has been more consitently anti-Hellenic than Britain. They're a nation of back-stabbing thiefs in my opinion. :Cursing:

Do you see anything specific behind the British property purchases in north Cyprus ?

I don't understand the question. :doubt:

Do you see the move of the British being more than just seeking a relatively cheaper place in the sun ?

I think the average Brit buys up property in north Cyprus because it's cheap. And because their government does absolutely NOTHING to dissuade them from buying there. On the contrary, their lack of enforcement of the EU prohibition from buying stolen property in north Cyprus encourages more of it to happen.

In essence the government of Britain, by it's no-enforcement policy and activity of folks like Cherie Blair, are saying, "Go ahead and buy the property! We will not enforce the laws there and you will be at no risk to lose your property because the government of Britain will fight it in the EU courts!"

As I've said in early posts, nobody has done more to harm Hellenic interests and to undercut us politically than the British. Absolutely nobody. They're an ethically challenged nation who have screwed over many, many other nations in their history so they could line their own pockets.

If I saw Tony Blair sitting in a flaming car at the side of the road, I wouldn't walk across the street to piss on him and put it out. I'd pull out marshmellows and sticks. :battered: