Is Greece out of the woods?

The Briefing Room

• Episode: Is Greece out of the woods?
• Website: The Briefing Room
• Feed URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07cblx9/episodes/downloads.rss
• Duration: 00:28:28
• Published: 2018-08-23 21:30

Greece exited its bailout programme last week. It's the culmination of nine years of reliance on huge loans from international finance bodies and stringent budget cuts. Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras, heralded it as a day of liberation. In the course of the country's economic crisis, youth unemployment rose to nearly 50 per cent and 40 per cent of the working age population was left at risk of poverty. Pensions were frozen and public sector salaries slashed. David Aaronovitch speaks to guests about what successive governments have had to do to turn things round and what impact years of austerity have had on the day-to-day life of the Greek people. And although the economic indicators have improved somewhat, how confident can the Greek government be in its future and in its ability to stimulate longer term growth? CONTRIBUTORS Michele Kambas, Athens bureau chief at Thomson Reuters Roman Gerodimos, founder of the Greek Politics Specialist Group Chloe Hadjimatheou, BBC journalist Professor Kevin Featherstone, Director of the Hellenic Observatory at the London School of Economics Producer: Tim Mansel.